


The Beginning of Days: Days Way Past

by MBIII



Series: Days Past [2]
Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: Angst, Boarding School, Canon Compliant, Eventual Romance, Flashbacks, Gen, Humor, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-27 12:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 52,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17767253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MBIII/pseuds/MBIII
Summary: With the Military Field Student Evaluation Tournament now concluded, Kaden is doing what he does best: obsessively going over every detail of its outcome and planning/plotting for next time.In another part of Nova Academy, however, Sorana is worried about her childhood friend. As she wonders why she hasn't heard from him since the tournament, she can't help but reflect on her own past, of days way past, when she first met the young upstart child named Kaden.





	1. Days Way Past

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Growing Minds Education Facility-**

**-Celestial Class Student Body Wing-**

**-Many Years Ago-**

A young, white-furred Lombax sat waiting patiently in the Celestial Wing's music room. She always came here to practice her harmonixium after school, but she and her classmates had been given a free period for their last class of the day, so she'd come here quite early to get more practice done. 

Sorana was often praised for her thorough adherence to rules, schedules, and her studies in general, but the truth was that she was only here early because she simply did not want to wait in her classroom with the rest of her classmates.

It wasn't that she didn't like her fellow students. Everyone in the Celestial Wing of 'Growing Minds', including Sorana herself, were all children of Valmecha's social elite and had all been taught from a very early age to be proper and mindful as befitting their family names. Everyone was always friendly to each other and very careful not to offend anyone since any grudges started here could have terrible repercussions in the future. Most of the students were too young to truly grasp this concept though, so their parents did their best to ensure that they at least understood the gist of their responsibility.

The same was true of Sorana and her family, but her case was somewhat special. She didn't particularly mind the rules and strictness of her upbringing, it was just that her family stood out uniquely amongst the rest of the high-class families as one of the most powerful. The Bellit family held so many seats on 'The Council for the Oversight of Goods and Services Across Fastoon's Atmosphere' that their family name was practically synonymous with it. This meant that anyone interested in trading with a foreign planet/race (a major market in an age of intergalactic space travel) essentially needed the approval of the Bellits to do so.

While the individual students themselves likely didn't understand what that meant, their parents did, and that sense of separation seemed to have been passed down to them. It was only recently, however, that Sorana began to notice the hint of reverence that she alone seemed to have among all of her peers. She even began to notice a slight difference in the way she was treated by the teachers and other adults when compared to her fellow classmates. All of which served to separate her from everyone else.

Now, it might be one's first thought to view a situation like Sorana's as lonely, or maybe even sad. While, on some level, that was true it was far from the whole back-story. The truth was that Sorana loved the attention and special treatment that she received (what child wouldn't?). Nobody was ever mean to her, nobody ever disagreed with her and of course, nobody ever yelled at her. She knew that as long as she followed the rules and listened to what her instructors said, she could essentially do whatever she wanted.

This was the basis for the reason that she'd chosen to come to the music room early. Had she remained in her classroom during the current free period, her 'friends' would all talk to her about whatever they thought she wanted to talk about and they would never give their actual opinions or thoughts unless they believed it was what she wanted to hear. She did not come to the music room early because she did not like being around her fellow students, or because she disliked her situation, but because it made no difference whether she was here or there.

The familiar hiss of the music room door sliding open broke Sorana out of her ruminating and she turned her head towards it in expectation of a teacher or even one of her classmates looking for her, but what she found standing at the door instead was in no way familiar.

Standing with his back to the now sealed door and panting furiously in desperate need for air, was a young, male Lombax with tan fur and light brown stripes. His eyes were shut at first, but after he'd had a moment to recapture his breath, they flung open and his pupils danced rapidly around the room, taking in every detail as they did. Then, they suddenly stopped when they came across Sorana and widened in surprise.

The strange young Lombax simply stared at her without moving a muscle and, in her shock, she simply stared right back. She had no clue what the boy wanted or even what he was doing here. He looked to be about the same age as her, but from his clothes, she could easily tell that he wasn't from her section of the school. She'd been told that students from other sections weren't allowed in this part of the school and she'd never met anyone her age that wasn't already in her class. She didn't know what this kid was doing here or why, but she did know one thing… he was breaking the rules.

Sorana stood up and straightened her back while putting on what she hoped was a strong expression, "What are you doing here?" she questioned with as much authority as she could muster.

The young boy didn't reply at first. Instead, he sucked his teeth and looked away unhappily, as if he'd been hoping to avoid talking by maintaining their staring contest indefinitely.

He began to look around the room again, but this time without actually studying anything. It seemed as if he was literally looking for the words to say.

Having apparently finished his thought, the boy refocused his gaze on Sorana. The intensity and suddenness of his gaze nearly made her take a step back, "I… am hiding… from a big, mean lady."

Sorana wasn't sure what she'd expected the boy's answer to be, but it definitely wasn't that. Regardless of how little she understood of what he'd meant, her only real priority was to get him out before her instructor arrived.

"Well, could you go find somewhere else to hide then?" she asked in a way that seemed like a question but sounded like an order. "You're not supposed to be here."

"No," the boy answered flatly.

Sorana was dumbfounded, "W-why not?" she demanded, angry at the boy's obstinance and more than a little off-put at being refused by someone her age.

"Because, I'm not supposed to be here, so she'll never look for me here," the boy answered, proud of his own brilliance.

Sorana blinked a few times. It bothered her that the boy refused to leave, but it bothered her even more than his argument made sense.

Not sure how to get rid of him now, what with her go-to method of 'telling' him having failed, Sorana instead decided to search for more information, "Why are you hiding from… this lady?" she asked.

"Because she said she'd tie my tail to a desk in the corner if I ever got caught breaking the rules again," the boy explained. He seemed to emphasize the part about the punishment, as if it was the only part that mattered and that he deserved to be pitied for it.

Sorana was still confused,  _ 'What did he mean by 'again',' _  she wondered. The very idea of breaking a rule once was something she had trouble wrapping her head around, but it appeared that this boy had possibly broken three rules!

"Did you do something to make her angry?" she pressed, both unsettled and intrigued at the same time.

The boy suddenly looked away again as he searched for another answer, this time he did so while grabbing his chin at intervals. 

The boy had seemed strange to Sorana at first glance, but the rapidness with which he changed expressions was very disconcerting. Especially to someone who'd only ever seen carbon-copy versions of friendly expressions or emotionless, formal stares.

Just like last time, the boy's attention suddenly refocused on Sorana, but unlike last time she had prepared for it… a little too much. 

It had been the surprise that had nearly caused her to almost back step last time, so she had prepared for it by leaning forward slightly. However, now that she was expecting it, there was no feeling of surprise and so she overcompensated and came close to falling forward instead. 

To Sorana's young mind it was beginning to feel like the strange boy's mere presence was pushing and pulling her in ways beyond her control and it was… annoying.

"I did a thing," the boy began to explain, yet again catching Sorana off guard as she'd completely forgotten that she'd just asked a question, "And… the lady got mad. I didn't 'make' her angry."

Reaffirming her resolve, Sorana straightened herself even taller as she considered the boy's words. They were confusing because they sounded like the most blatantly idiotic excuse she'd ever heard and no one could be that stupid.

"What 'thing'?" Sorana asked eventually, thinking that finding out more was her only option.

Yet again the boy did something unexpected. His face seemed to light up at the question and his ears perked excitedly. He even puffed out his tiny chest… which looked ridiculous for his size.

"Well," began the boy proudly, "you know the thing all the elders say? Whenever someone is walking too slow, they say someone should 'light a fire under their tails' to make them move faster?" Sorana had heard the expression used before, so she nodded. The boy grinned even more, "Guess what? It really does work," he said conclusively, as if he had just revealed some great secret.

Sorana squinted at the boy, as if changing her vision would somehow turn what he was saying into something that made sense, "What are you talking about? That's just a saying," she argued.

The boy wagged a finger at Sorana, in a fashion that would have likely been enraging to her, had she not already been thoroughly confused, "Na-uh,” countered the boy, “it really does work. I dipped a bunch of other kids' tails in cooled gelatonium nitrate during nap time and when that sticky stuff gets warm, it goes… Booosh!" the boy exclaimed excitedly while throwing his hands up in the air to mimic fire igniting. "And it worked! They ran so fast that none of the elders, or even the nursery-bots, could catch them!"

And suddenly, Sorana understood the situation. She also became aware of something else at that exact moment: The answer was ‘yes’, someone could be 'that stupid'.

"What is wrong with you?!" Sorana demanded, more intensely that she'd intended to. "No wonder that teacher is after you, you did exactly what she told you not to!"

The boy simply stared back at Sorana, as if 'he' was the one confused, "No I didn't," he countered, as if it were so obvious that he shouldn't have had to explain it, "She said if she ever 'caught' me. Well, she hasn't caught me yet, so… I win."

"That's not what she meant!" Sorana continued to argue. "She was telling you to stop disobeying the rules!"

The boy simply smirked knowingly at her, "Yeah, right. How would you know, you didn't even know that lighting a fire under your tail could make you run faster."

Sorana covered her face with her hands in frustration. She felt like screaming. It wasn't just the kid's stupidity that bothered her, it was his unbelievable smugness. He was so arrogantly sure of himself. So sure that he was right and that she was wrong.

With great effort, Sorana remembered what she'd been taught and calmed herself down. She had never met someone so blindingly stupid before. She didn't even know what to think about him… and she didn't care. 

Sorana pulled her hands away from her face to tell the intruding idiot to leave again, but the words caught in her throat when she found he had disappeared.

"Whoa! Is this a harmonixium?" the boy shouted from the other side of the room. He was sitting on a chair that was surrounded by variously sized discs and a few electronic sound amplifiers.

"Don't touch that, it's mine!" Sorana screeched angrily as she hurried over to stop him.

"You mean you can play this?" asked the boy in awe, turning to look at her with wide eyes. "That's amazing!" 

Sorana was taken aback at the sudden compliment and instantly forgot what she’d been about to say, "Yes, ehm... well, I haven't been playing it for long," she said as she felt her ego inflate slightly. "But I do know how."

The boy looked elated, "Can I hear it?" he asked expectantly.

If there was one thing Sorana could take pride in that was hers alone, it was her ability to play one of the most difficult instruments in the galaxy, "I guess," she answered almost reflexively. "That is… if you really, really wanted me to."

Replacing her desire to remove the intruder with the desire to be adored, thanks to the mood-shifting power of someone so young, Sorana walked toward her instrument. The boy got up to allow her to sit, before retaking a seat on a nearby stool.

Sorana gave the boy a short introduction about the song she was going to play before she reached down and activated her harmonixium. Once she did, a directed, anti-gravity field hummed into life around her and her instrument. 

The electromagnets then began to buzz with power as energy flowed through them. A moment later, thousands of small metal beads shot into the air, knocking against each other in the air, before slowly solidifying into several long strands. Each strand then glowed slightly as it was wrapped in its own separate energy field to keep dust and air out.

Sorana reached her hand up to one of the strings and felt the familiar, tingling sensation of the energy field as it gently pushed back against intrusive particles. 

She then plucked a strand to test it. Both she and the boy watched as the string of beads vibrated, some separating completely to move freely about the field, and they both listened to the deep hum it generated. After a moment the beads reformed and were still once more.

A harmonixium was based on the concept of the ancient harp or lyre instruments of olden times and low-tech races. The metal beads each had a precisely measured magnetic property, so they all held a very specific place with respect to the instrument. This also made them adhered to each other to form the strings. Whenever a bead was moved out of place, the resulting disturbance in the magnetic field would generate sound that was then amplified by the instrument.

The harmonixium was known throughout the galaxy as one of the most difficult instruments to play in existence. Besides being extremely sensitive to even the slightest amount of force, the bead-strings made a different sound depending on what point in its reformation process that you strummed it again. This meant that the notes had to be played at the exact right time with the exact right amount of force.

Sorana slowly began to strum the chords in a practiced rhythm. Sound began to fill the room as she moved her fingers up and down while jumping from one cord to the next. She had been told that her skill was very impressive for her age and her parents had been very proud of her abilities, so it was a huge source of pride for her. 

As she continued to play, she closed her eyes and listened closely to the sounds that were made. This was the first time someone other than her instructors or parents had heard her play. The feeling was much more exciting than she had anticipated and she had to fight hard to keep her hands under the perfect control that was necessary to play properly.

The true difficulty of mastering the harmonixium wasn't in the first few notes. Even if the musician was a little off with the pressure or position of their fingers, they could still produce a similar sound. What was nearly impossible to do, however, was repeating the exact notes for the second, third, and beyond, pulls of the strings. The beads reacted so differently to even the slightest mistake that it was nearly impossible to predict beforehand how they'd alter the next note and the longer the song lasted the more askew the notes became.

It has been said that true masters of the harmonixium didn't follow a set series of finger movements that made up a music sheet, but that they instead listened to the previous note and were able to perceive the difference in them to such a fine degree that they could alter the next one accordingly. This in itself was an impressive feat of skill, but there were over a dozen bead-strands and the musician needed to complete this modification for each one, almost simultaneously.

Despite all of this, Sorana's focus was razor sharp and she could hear every note she played as clearly as the next one. With her hands trained from hours upon hours of long practice, Sorana's fingers danced across the ethereal-like strings and after several minutes of playing, her performance was complete.

Sorana let out a breath that felt like it'd been held throughout the entire performance and she looked up expectantly to see the boy's stunned face staring back at her, "Well?" she asked with a smile and a slight wheeze from both the strain of her focus and the excitement of having a new audience. "What did you think?"

"It was…" the boy began in a manner that was unlike before. This time he knew the words he wanted to say, but he was too stunned to say them, "It was… terrible."

Sorana felt as if someone had driven a sharp spike through her inflated ego and all her good feelings burst like a balloon.

Despite having heard the boy's words very clearly, he mind flat out refused to accept them, "What was that?" she asked again in the delusional hope that she had simply misheard him.

"That was really… really bad," the boy answered again in an astonished tone. "If you had gone on much longer, I would have had to pull my ears shut like this," and with a gesture that left no room for doubt as to its meaning, the boy grabbed the tips of his ears and pulled them down to show how he would have attempted to block out the offensive sound.

In somewhat of a daze Sorana's subconscious used pure muscle memory to make her reach down and shut off her harmonixium. At once, all of the beads were magnetically sucked back into their discs and the low hum of energy disappeared, but Sorana was aware of none of it. 

A strange and powerful feeling was beginning to creep its way into her mind and at first, Sorana was too confused to act on it. It was a feeling she'd never experienced before in her life.

"That's it..." the seething, white-furred Lombax hissed quietly as she felt something snap inside her and the strange new feeling took complete hold of her.

With a roar of 'anger', she leapt toward the obnoxious Lombax with all the strength her young legs could muster. The boy squeaked in surprise and toppled off of the stool in a reflexive attempt to evade her. When her first attacked had missed, Sorana remained undaunted and immediately gave chase as the boy skittered around the music room, ducking and weaving around various desks, chairs and other large instruments.

The boy was fast, clearly used to running from enraged people that wanted to hurt him, but Sorana finally got her chance to catch him as he tried to crawl under a table. Grabbing the most graspable part of his body that she could reach, Sorana pulled with all her strength and dragged him out from underneath the piece of furniture by his tail.

From the moment she did so, however, a loud yelp of pain erupted from the boy's other end and it made her let go in surprise. Somewhere in her enraged mind, Sorana vaguely remembered that pulling on a boy's tail was supposed to hurt unbelievably, but being a girl she'd never truly known how much.

The boy stood up and spun around to face her, hands cradling his rear, but his face wasn't its usual arrogant smirk. Instead, the boy's features were scrunched up in pain and he looked on the verge of tears with his lip trembling violently. 

Having exhausted most of her rage during the chase, Sorana immediately felt bad about what she'd done. She didn't know what had come over her. There was just something about this boy that made her want to hit him.

Sorana didn't know what to say, and after a long few seconds of simply staring at each other, the boy finally spoke, "I'm telling," he choked bitterly.

Sorana gasped. She had never been in trouble before and pulling someone's tail was a big no-no.  _ 'Why was this happening?'  _ she asked herself desperately. 

Sorana wasn't particularly worried about the teachers' reactions, but her parents would definitely hear about this. Her heart was pounding as the thought of being scolded filled her mind.

Her only hope was to beg for forgiveness. She opened her mouth to ask the boy not to tell, but in a flash of tan fur, he was already at the music room door before she could get a word out. He reached for the command pad to open it, but stopped, sudden realization on his face. Slowly he lowered his arm and turned back to Sorana.

"Oh," the boy breathed out in defeat. "If I go to tell the teacher, she'll catch me," he explained.

A wave of relief washed over Sorana and she nearly fell to her knees from it. She had been repeatedly tormented by the strange kid's idiocy, but now she was saved by it. It was very ironic.

"But your music still stinks," the boy repeated stubbornly.

A now familiar twitch of annoyance broke through Sorana's relief and she returned her attention to him, but she breathed deeply and fought off another wave of anger, "I don't care!" she shouted in dismissal, with a great deal of effort. "You just stay over there and be quiet." She then turned toward her instrument and began walking away.

"I mean it," the boy yelled again, unhappy about being ignored and trying to goad her. "You play really, really, ‘really’ bad!" Sorana simply ignored him as he continued, "I bet even I could play better."

Sorana stopped dead in her tracks and turned back around, but when she faced the boy again, she was wearing a gleefully wicked grin, "Oh yeah? Prove it," she dared.

To her surprise, the boy's attitude changed completely again, from one of anger and confrontation to one of excitement. He then rushed eagerly over to the seat by the harmonixium like a child about to play with a new toy (an apt metaphor). Sorana caught up to him just as he was looking around for the way she'd activated the instrument.

She rolled her eyes upon seeing his uselessness, "Like this," she said before reaching for the activation switch. Her hand, however, paused just before pressing it and she looked back up at the boy suspiciously, "You better not break it."

"I won't," he replied indignantly and when she turned back around to finish flipping the switch, he stuck his tongue out at her.

The device activated with the familiar hum of energy and when all the beads had settled, the boy reached for the middle cord with bated breath and simply brushed it lightly.

A harsh screech erupted from the amplifiers and both Lombaxes pulled their ears down to block it out. When the sound had dissipated they both looked up.

"Ha!" exclaimed Sorana in triumph. She was surprised by how good it felt to shove something in the boy's face.

"Wait! Let me try again," replied the boy desperately.

He tried several more times to strum each chord and each time resulted in a horrible screech, or wail, or crack, and all the while Sorana's smile grew bigger as she watched him struggle and grow more frustrated by second. Finally, he stopped and sat there looking defeated.

"Not so easy is it?" prodded Sorana happily. The boy looked up at her and she was struck by his intense stare again and again nearly took a step back.

"Teach me," he demanded flatly.

Sorana was yet again dumbfounded by the sheer audacity of the boy's words. It was like he had completely forgotten everything he had done up until now, "Never! Not in a million years!" she refused hotly.

The boy puckered his lips and stared at her unhappily, but eventually, he just shrugged and continued to experiment with the instrument. Carefully he tried different positions and amounts of strength, but only succeed in preventing the noise from getting too loud and bringing his strums to a tolerable level.

Eventually, however, the enjoyment of watching the boy struggle wore off and Sorana grew tired of the show. She knew that she still couldn't get rid of him, so she decided to try to at least teach him the proper finger movement with which to strum the chords; after all, it was the least a superior harmonixium player could do for such a sad amateur.

The boy listened intently to what Sorana told him and took in every word before returning to the harmonixium. 

And, to Sorana’s utter amazement, he incorporated everything she had told him seamlessly and, with a little more help, was soon able to play the first few notes without too much trouble. Sorana was surprised to find the boy was actually capable of something productive, but was even more surprised when she realized that she really liked the feeling of teaching.

She had spent her whole life being taught by people better than her and was now truly enjoying having someone even more inexperienced turn to her for help. It was a perfect combination of good, karmic feelings about helping someone else, while at the same time acted as a massive ego stroking every time she explained something that she knew and the boy didn't.

Just when everything finally seemed to have calmed down, however, the door to the music room hissed open and a very large, very angry, tan-furred Lombax stood framed in the doorway. She was breathing heavily and had scorch marks all over her clothing and hands.

"There you are," she hissed the moment she spotted the boy.

As soon as the boy registered the threat, he immediately tried to run, but the elder Lombax was over top of him in a flash. 

Grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, she lifted him clear off his feet while grinning wickedly, "I have you now," she said with utter glee.

"Let go!" the boy squeaked as he wriggled in her grasp. "I didn't do anything!"

"Yes you did!" she shouted back. "I know it was you, it's always you. The weasels, the blue paint, the Suck Cannon! It was all you then and I know it was you this time as well!"

The boy continued to struggle, but only managed to make the larger Lombax laugh at his efforts.

"Um, Excuse me?" said a quiet voice from seemingly nowhere.

The elder turned to face the little, white-furred Lombax to her side and gasped, "Oh, Miss Bellit. I didn't notice you there," the woman said, clearly shaken. "I-I apologize deeply for this interruption," she continued with a small bow of her head. "I'll get rid of this nuisance right away."

The woman turned toward the door and started to leave, "Wait," said Sorana. "Where are you taking him?"

The question came out of her mouth without any prior thought. Of course, she knew that the boy was finally getting what he deserved, but the only thing her young mind could think about at the moment was how her harmonixium lesson had gotten interrupted.

The woman halted at Sorana's words and turned back around obediently, "Well, you see Miss Bellit. This little tyrant," she shook the boy for emphasis, "attacked some of his fellow students, so I'm going to lock him away where he won't bother anyone else and can think about what he did. Don't worry though, he won't be back to bother you ever again. I'll make sure of it."

"No!" Sorana exclaimed suddenly, again without thinking.

The woman suddenly looked confused, "Miss Bellit?" she asked hesitantly.

"You can't take him away," Sorana declared.

The woman seemed to become even more confused, "But, Miss Bellit, he's lit several other students' tails on fire. I'm not sure how he did it, but I know it was him," she tried to explain.

"Well he's been here all afternoon, so he couldn't have done it," Sorana stated firmly.

The woman was stunned with disbelief. She kept looking at Sorana then to the boy and then back again. Then she began to fidget nervously, "Miss Bellit, this boy isn't a member of the Celestial classes. He's not even supposed to be here."

Sorana crossed her arms and stared hard at the woman. It was a ridiculous scene to an outside observer, but to the elder woman, it was quite effective. 

"This boy is my friend, so please leave him be," she declared authoritatively and the woman was almost as shocked by the words as Sorana herself was.

"But… he...," the woman mumbled as she tried to cope with the situation.

The boy simply hung there with squinted eyes and folded arms, glaring at the elder. Carefully, the woman began lowering him to the ground.

"Um, then would you like me to stay and... keep an eye on him?" she asked Sorana cautiously.

"No," Sorana answered flatly. "We are in the middle of practicing and my parents would be very upset if something were preventing me from my practice," she added, knowing the reaction she always got whenever her parents were mentioned.

Slowly, the woman nodded in a conceding manner, before she turned and walked towards the doorway. After one last, confused glance back at Sorana and the boy, the woman left the room and closed the door behind her. As soon as the door shut, the boy stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry in her wake.

At first, Sorana wore a slight, triumphant smirk as she felt the satisfaction of victory. That feeling evaporated into a puff of smoke as the full realization of what she'd just done hit her all at once. Grabbing a nearby desk for balance, Sorana sucked in a huge breath of air before falling to her knees and pressing her forehead against the table.

_ 'What have I done?!' _  she questioned herself in disbelief. She had just lied to an elder! This had been the first time she'd ever lied to anyone before and she couldn't even figure out what had made her do it. The rush of adrenaline she felt at that moment was yet another strange, new feeling.

_ 'That wasn't even the worst of it,' _  she reminded herself as she glanced over at the delinquent boy who now had his thumbs in his ears with palms wide as he made ever more elaborate faces at the now-closed doorway. Worst of all was that she'd blown her opportunity to finally get rid of this intrusive idiot once and for all.

"That was amazing!" the boy exclaimed, suddenly turning around, "How'd you do that? She looked like she was going to wet her pants!"

"It was nothing," Sorana said dejectedly. This was one thing she did not want to be complimented about. "Elders are always like that around me." 

Though she had noticed it and thought about it before, Sorana had never once abused the phenomenon like this.

The boy, however, was overjoyed at the thought of having escaped punishment and was in utter amazement at Sorana's ability to control the perspectively evil lady that was always after him. Sorana finally caught her breath and stood back up.

"Well then, let's continue," she said in a somewhat defeated tone. If the two of them were now back to where they started, then they might as well get on with the harmonixium lesson.

"Ah, I can't," said the boy as he checked at the chronometer above the door. He had been enjoying his lesson so much that'd he'd lost track of time. "I was only hiding because the mean lady usually catches me as I try to go home, but if I'm late, my mom will be worried."

"Oh... Sorana replied, caught off guard by the sudden reversal of the situation after having just resigned herself to being stuck with the boy again, “ok."

"Thanks for showing me your harmonixium," said the boy cheerfully as he waved and ran toward the door. "Good-bye," he added as the barrier slid open and he disappeared from sight.

Sorana was then left alone for the first time in what seemed like ages, but the room somehow felt oddly quiet. She shook the feeling away and returned to her instrument. She knew that she'd lost quite a bit of practice time and had to make it up. She should just be happy that the mess was over and that she could get back to her normal life.

She played her harmonixium and practiced all the notes that her instructors had told her to. Eventually, her butler came to pick her up and take her home. 

When asked about her day in the hovercar ride back, she didn't mention the boy. She had only known the odd Lombax for just over an hour, so she decided the best thing to do was to forget about the whole event. After all, she hadn't even learned the boy's name.

* * *

Sorana awoke suddenly and found herself blinking several times in the darkness of her dorm room, as the last images of her dream faded from her mind. 

After a moment to reorient her senses, she could hear the soft sound of her roommate's breathing from the other bed against the opposite wall. 

The only light source in the pitch blackness was from the small digital clock readout on her nightstand. It currently indicated what she was already very aware of… that she should still be asleep.

With a small sigh, the tired Lombax tried to relax into her pillow once more. As she lay there, she reflected on the dream she’d had. It had been a long time since she'd had that one. A small smile crept across her resting features as she remembered her younger days and the first time she'd experienced so many strange emotions.

Suddenly, Sorana's NID set off a soft alert beeping directly into her brain. This alert was telling her that she had just received a NID link message. Unlike Kaden, whose head was so full of wires and NID upgrades that he was essentially a walking computer himself, Sorana's NID was the most basic version there was. It acted as little more than an ID chip combined with an antenna for communication. Any communication she did, though, needed to be run through an external interface like a digi-pad. 

More importantly, however, there were only two NID addresses whose priorities were high enough to go off while she was in such a relaxed state and it was very unlikely that her parents were calling at this moment.

A pulse of adrenaline suddenly shot through Sorana’s body as her mind made the connection. Unfortunately, she was still more than half-asleep. Her muscles abruptly become active and capable, but her mind was not yet prepared to command them in any manner that could be considered precise.

Sorana's digi-pad had been left on her nightstand, mere inches away, next to her digital clock. In her sleepy mind, she had ordered her arm to reach outward and find the relatively large nightstand first, then to use her sense of touch to find the way to the top where her digi-pad should be. 

Instead, her hand missed the small table altogether and came down across the side of her sleeping capsule with a slight smack. Using the logic awarded to her from a half-conscious mind, Sorana quickly rolled onto her side to use her other arm in order to find the device, and success, where her first arm had failed. This arm too, unfortunately, missed the nightstand.

While normally this wouldn't cause a problem, the extra bit of misplaced adrenaline running through her body, caused her to overestimate the force of her roll. Add to that the strange kind-of kick motion that her legs had seemingly performed of their own accord and you get a semi-conscious Lombax rapidly sliding headfirst out of her sleeping capsule before crashing onto the floor in an avalanche of pillows and blankets.

As an extra bonus, Sorana also managed to fall so slowly that she had time to reach back around with her first arm and grab a handful of sheet material. While this was unable to prevent her departure from the capsule itself, it did manage to wrench up the mattress she'd been sleeping on. 

The mattress then came very close to joining its owner on the outside of the capsule as well, but managed only to catapult the small set of stuffed animals that had been secretly hidden away in the gap between it and the inner capsule wall.

From amongst the heap of fabric that now covered the floor, a single, white-furred arm erupted from the top of it, before reaching about to the nightstand and finally gripping the sought after digi-pad. After being drawn down into the heap, the device turned on with a 'click'.

"You're so adorable," whispered a tired voice from the other bed, too softly for Sorana to hear.

Through blurry vision, Sorana checked the message on her digi-pad. As she suspected, it was from Kaden.

It had been late in the afternoon yesterday when she'd seen her friend's disqualification from the Military Field's tournament. Not wanting to rub salt in the wound, but still worried about him all the same, Sorana had waited until later that night to send him a simple text message inquiring about how he was doing.

His reply, which she’d just received, was very Kaden-ish and simple, "I'm fine," said the blindingly bright letters on Sorana's digi-pad.

Very carefully, she typed a response, "Define 'fine'?" she tapped out before pressing the 'send' icon. Then she stared at the now dim screen and waited.

At about a minute in, Sorana began to get worried. While expecting a message immediately after sending one was bad etiquette, Kaden had always replied quickly at all times. As mentioned earlier, his NID was fully accessible from his own brain and he could read and reply to a message with just a thought. She hadn't been concerned much about his first late reply because she simply assumed that he'd gone to sleep early, a very likely scenario given how exhausted he must have been. However, she couldn't shake the sense of foreboding now because there was no way he'd fallen asleep again in the time he'd just sent the last message.

At five minutes past, Sorana shut off her digi-pad and placed it back on her nightstand. She then grabbed her pillow and pulled her blankets back around her. She knew that her only real option was to simply get some much-needed sleep, though, her dreams were full of her tan-furred friend as well. Regardless, as she lay there, her mind began to fill with possible explanations for Kaden's lack of response.

Her first thought was that he was simply ignoring her, which seemed like a good answer as he probably wouldn't want to talk about the match, but even when the two of them got into arguments in the past, he'd always responded to her messages. 

Unfortunately, even if it was true, she had no way of confirming it at the moment, so her mind simply pressed forward in its attempt to figure things out baselessly.

Right around the time that Sorana caught herself entertaining the idea that Kaden may have been kidnapped, murdered, had his NID removed to be sold on the black market, and that the device's new owner had sent her the 'I'm fine' message out of some sick sense of humor… she finally admitted that sleep might not be possible. There was also strong evidence in favor of this conclusion from the fact that she had been so absorbed in her fantasies that she only just now realized that she was still lying on the floor.

With a long groan of displeasure, the tired Lombax finally picked herself off the ground and made her way to her closet, leaving a trail of blankets and covers in her wake that led back to her bed. Her next class didn't start for several more hours, but she figured she could just spend the extra time reviewing in the classroom.

* * *

The room in which Sorana had her mathematics class lectures was located on the upper floors of the Science Field's main building. It was a Science Field based class, but it was basic enough that all students had to take it, just like how she was taking physical education classes at the Military Field. She had briefly considered trying to find Kaden directly since she was already in the Science Field anyway, but knew that security wouldn't let her down to the male student dorms area.

The classroom itself was fairly small. A standard lecture hall that could hold a little over fifty people. It had struck Sorana as odd at first, since the class officially had over a hundred students, but many of them chose not to attend as they could apparently watch the lecture from anywhere that had a holo-net connection.

Sorana took her usual seat in the middle and as she sat down, here desk immediately lit up with holo-screens. Recognizing her NID, the screens flashed for a moment, before displaying her notes for the class on one screen while displaying digital textbook information on another.

Sorana spent the next half-hour trying very hard to focus on the material that they were going to cover today, but the struggle was far more than she'd expected. She was still having trouble keeping her mind off of Kaden and the fact that she'd already read and reviewed the current chapter previously, made doing it a third time feel like too much, even for her. On top of that, she was still very tired and the light from the sun, which was just now starting to crest the horizon, was beginning to poke through the room's window. Its soft glow began to warm her fur in an amazingly comfortable way.

It wasn't long before her eyelids began to droop and she was asleep once more and soon, she began to dream.


	2. Days Past and Present

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Growing Minds Education Facility-**

**-Celestial Class, Student Body Wing-**

**-Many Years Ago + One Day-**

Sorana arrived early as usual to the Growing Minds' music room, but today was special. Today was her weekly, private harmonixium lesson.

Her music instructor was an old, male, brown-furred Lombax. He was also strict, but he wasn't mean. He arrived at the scheduled time and smiled warmly in his usual, cheerful way of greeting before the two of them began their lesson.

The next few hours were spent practicing the different strumming techniques that the instructor had been trying to teach Sorana while he answered any questions she had or gave advice as needed. 

Sorana was a very good student and followed instructions well. She rarely needed to ask questions, but was unafraid to do so if necessary. Today, however, there was one question in particular that she was hesitant to ask.

Sorana was still in the middle of practicing a technique when the old Lombax's NID alerted him to the time, and he tapped his student gently on the shoulder to let her know that their lesson was over and that it was time for him to go.

Respectfully, Sorana ceased her playing and powered down her harmonixium before turning and thanking her instructor for his time.

"Your playing was excellent as always, Miss Bellit," he said as he repacked his hologram generator. "Just practice what I showed you today and you should be ready to move on to the next lesson by the end of the week." The old Lombax gave his student a complimentary smile, but Sorana did not look very cheerful about the praise. "What's wrong?" he asked when his compliment wasn't returned with her usual proud smile.

Sorana summoned her courage and finally asked the question that had been weighing on her mind, "Am I really good, or are you just saying that?" she replied.

The boy's words from yesterday had managed to lodge themselves somewhere in the back of her young mind. She had tried to ignore them, but they just wouldn't go away. She had reassured herself by remembering her teachers' frequent praise, but that somehow had only made things worse. 

She had realized that if her classmates always told her whatever she wanted to hear, then what of the possibility that her teachers were doing so as well? What if this whole time she really was 'terrible', as the boy had said, but that her instructor feared hurting her feelings?

The old Lombax rubbed his chin as he considered the question. He knew Sorana was currently capable of playing the beginnings of many difficult songs, but a harmonixium player is not a true Harmonixer until they’re able to play a song to its completion. 

Sorana had only started playing seriously a little over a year ago. Even though her practice regiment was substantial, it would likely take her at least five years to be good enough to play a high-level song to its finish without flaw. A long time, to be sure, but that was just the nature of learning to play the most difficult instrument in the Galaxy. If he'd let her play a complex song to its finish now, it would likely sour by the end and sound horrible.

"Of course my dear," he insisted reassuringly, "I've had many pupils and of them all, you are one of the quickest learners I've ever had the pleasure to teach." 

The man didn't want to hurt the feelings of a little girl, let alone his employer's daughter, but luckily he didn't have to lie about her abilities. She really was an excellent student. 

He was relieved when she seemed to accept his words with a nod, but he then became curious as to why such a good student suddenly lost her confidence, "What makes you doubt your abilities?" he asked suspiciously.

"It's nothing," Sorana answered. "I was just curious of what other people would think of my music."

At that moment, a light bulb went on somewhere in the back of the old musician's mind, "Is it because of that boy from yesterday?" he inquired as he made the connection.

"What?" replied Sorana, startled at having her thoughts read aloud, "No, he, uh... T-the boy-"

The old Lombax raised his hand to quiet his student, "The supervisor of this facility informed me earlier of his recent visit and expressed her concern about how he might be influencing you." 

The experienced instructor knew that a child's confidence was easily shaken. When he had heard of another child's presence, he had immediately been concerned over what thoughtless comments they might have made.

Sorana looked at her feet and tried to brush off her relationship to the boy, "It's not like we really know each other," she insisted. "I don't even know his name," she added truthfully.

The instructor stroked his chin for another moment. The facility advisor had informed him that Sorana had referred to the boy as a 'friend'. This had been mildly alarming, but it didn't seem like his student was lying now. The old Lombax assumed that a staff member must have simply misheard her or something.

The boy that the facility director had described to him was a member of the Solar Class, which was made up of students from average Valmechan families. To make matters even worse, this boy, in particular, had been branded 'Sub-orbital' which was a term used for students who frequently misbehaved. The instructor knew that this child's very presence could be detrimental to his student's growth and so he decided to take action.

"I am told this boy's name is Kaden and that he is famous at this school for being a boisterous trouble maker," the instructor explained to Sorana with great disapproval in his tone. "It will do you no good to be fraternizing with children like him, do you understand?"

Sorana took in this new information without any reaction. It figured that the first kid her age that she'd met on her own was 'bad'. She had been given private lessons and learned Primary Education with a small, select group of kids like herself in a closed off part of the Growing Minds' education facility. When the boy had burst in yesterday, it had been the first time she had ever seen a student from the 'other side' of the school.

Eventually, Sorana nodded her understanding, "Ok," she replied quietly.

Her instructor smiled with satisfaction, "Very good. Now, as I was saying, from now on you should spend about an hour or so each day practicing what I've taught you until you are sure you've got the motions down by heart. Shall I call your attendant to pick you up?"

Sorana shook her head; she didn't feel like leaving just yet, "I think I'll just stay here for a bit. I want to practice a little more."

The old instructor was pleased by his student's work ethic, but it also gave him a bad feeling, "Very well, I'll lock the door from the inside so that no one can bother you," he offered. "Promise me that if that boy comes calling again that you won't unlock the door for him, ok?"

Sorana simply nodded and her instructor left the room, after making sure that the door could not be opened from the outside by any non-staff member.

After she heard the click of the locking mechanism, Sorana reactivated her instrument and continued practicing. She was now even more assured of her decision to forget about the strange Lombax despite the mild amount of enjoyment she got from teaching him the harmonixium. 

Even if he ‘were’ to show up now, not that she was secretly hoping he would or anything, she would do just as she'd been instructed and refuse to unlock the door for him. All she needed to do now was focus on her music.

After a few minutes alone, however, she began to hear a strange clicking noise in the background of her music. Halting her practice, she looked around the room for its source. After listening carefully for several more seconds, she found that it was coming from the corner of the room, in the ceiling.

Sorana stared curiously at the spot for a moment before a sudden eruption of sparks spewed down from the area she'd been focused on. The glowing shower of burning material then began moving slowly across the ceiling in an arc until it had made a full circle outline, before stopping and disappearing completely.

Blinking hard in disbelief, Sorana began to hear the clicking noises again. This time the disc of ceiling material that had been cut was pulled up by something before vanishing from sight. 

Sorana stared dumbfounded into the dark hole that had been left behind and jumped out of her seat when eight red, glowing dots of light suddenly poked through the shadows.

Sorana moved away from the hole as fast as she could and hid behind a large cabinet in the opposite corner. 

Terrified, she looked back at the hole in the ceiling and a horrifyingly loud whir of gears and servos echoed from it. A moment later, a giant, robotic spider emerged from the black portal and began lowering itself down to the floor by a metal tether from its hindquarters. 

Most surprising of all, however, was what she spotted riding on its back: a familiar-looking, young, tan-furred Lombax.

The spider landed on the ground with a succession of clinking taps from eight metal legs and the boy hopped off casually, "Hello," he waved in a cheerful manner toward Sorana, who was still hiding behind her cabinet.

Sorana's voice was caught in her throat and she had to fight to reply, "W-what is that thing?!" she demanded in a terrified voice.

The boy looked around in confusion until he realized what she was talking about, "Oh, that's just Brad," he answered calmly before turning to the spider robot, "Thanks for the ride Brad," he said to it with another wave.

'Brad' then returned the boy's wave with one of its metal limbs while it pulled itself back up its tether with most of the others. Once it was back inside the hole, it replaced the disc of ceiling material. 

A moment later, grey goo oozed from the circle's outline before it quickly began to hiss and smoke for a few seconds. When it had stopped, the scoreline of the circle was completely erased from the ceiling and the remaining material simply evaporated. There was no sign at all that any damage had ever happened.

Sorana stood up while staring, open-mouthed, at where there had been a hole just a second ago, forcing her to now question whether she'd simply imagined the whole thing or not. 

Her only proof that it had happened at all was the boy who, by now, had walked over and taken a seat on the chair that she had just vacated and was currently looking over the holographic music sheets that she had been practicing.

"Do you really sit here and practice this for hours every day?" he asked in amazement and disbelief.

"What are you doing here!?" Sorana practically screamed at full pitch.

The boy jumped in surprise at her sudden outburst, nearly falling off the chair from the shock, "I came to play!" he shouted back on instinct, but worried that he'd done something wrong.

"What was that... thing?!" she demanded again while pointing at the ceiling.

"That was Brad..." the boy began to explain, but trailed off as Sorana's furious glare told him to be more specific, among other things, "He's a maintenance-bot that was hurt. I fixed him and now he helps me get around when the mean lady's after me."

Sorana gawked in amazement at the boy and wondered if the day would ever come where she'd stop being struck speechless by the strange, tan-furred Lombax.

After taking a moment to calm herself back down, she straightened up her posture and addressed the boy once more, "You can't be here," she said flatly.

The boy didn't look surprised, "Why not?" he asked simply.

"Because you're a bad kid and my instructor told me that I can't be around you," she answered with a surprising hint of sadness in her voice.

The boy began to spin on the chair, "No he didn't," he replied cheerfully. "I was listening."

Sorana squinted at the boy, unsure of how she felt about his eavesdropping, "Yes he did," she reasserted, the mild sadness in her tone now replaced with that of annoyance. "If you heard him then you know what he said."

"Yep," the boy replied, a hint of his typical arrogance beginning to reappear. "He said it will do you no good to frackranize' with me and that you couldn't open the door to let me in. He didn't say we couldn't play together."

Sorana folded her arms and stared back at the boy authoritatively, "It's pronounced 'fraternize' and if you heard him say all that, then you know that we can't play together." The boy simply continued to shake his head and smile like he knew something that she didn't, this prompted Sorana to push her point across harder, "He meant that it would be 'bad' for us to play together."

"The old guy never said 'bad', he only said 'no good' and that just means playing together isn't good," the boy smiled and nodded his head as if he had just revealed some great truth.

Sorana was now even more confused and was sure she had missed something, because it sounded like the boy's argument was even worse off after he'd spoken, "If it's 'no good' than it has to be bad," she explained.

The boy shook his head at her yet again, this time almost sadly, and he gave Sorana a look as if he pitied her, which was infuriating, "He said it was 'no good', but I know it can't be bad, so then us playing together must be ‘neutral’. Not good, not bad, but just right in the middle."

Sorana blinked several times and was silent for a while as she tried to take in what she'd been told. There were so many things to be confused by, not least of which was the boy's simultaneous inability to pronounce 'fraternize' while also giving a grammatically and philosophically acceptable argument for the true meaning of the phrase 'no good'.

But for all the incomprehension that filled her mind, Sorana eventually cut through it and got back to the point, "That's not what he meant!" she barked angrily. "He was telling me that you and I are not allowed to be around each other at all. He even locked the door so you couldn't come in!"

"But I didn't use the door," smiled the boy proudly, "I used the ceiling."

Sorana's blood pressure quickly began to rise and she fought to form a retort. 

No matter what she came up with, though, she could already imagine the boy's blunt reply coupled with his infuriatingly arrogant smirk.

It wasn't fair. She knew that she was right and that the boy was wrong. This was entirely his fault anyway. If he hadn't been a 'bad influence' then her instructor wouldn't have forbidden their interaction. If he'd simply followed the rules, they could have played together freely.

"Why?" the young girl eventually hissed through her clenched teeth, "‘Why’ do you have to break every rule there is?" she demanded angrily.

The boy simply raised an eyebrow at her, "‘Why’ do you have to follow them?" he asked back.

Sorana felt like a bucket of water had suddenly been splashed on her face as she realized she didn’t actually know ‘why’. All at once, she seemed to visibly deflate as all of her anger and frustration drained from her, leaving her standing with a confused look on her face.

' _ Why 'was' she trying so hard to enforce the rules?'  _ she asked herself. 

Sorana had always followed the rules diligently, as did everyone she knew. It wasn't a matter of 'why', it simply 'was'. The very idea of 'not' following the rules was so alien to her that it shook her to her very core.

With that question, then came the thought of actually disobeying the rules and it sent a shudder through Sorana's body. The very idea brought fear and discomfort in great amounts to her young mind, but... it also brought just the tiniest hint of excitement. This realization startled Sorana, but it also intrigued her enough to forfeit the battle.

"All right..." she conceded, "I give up."

The boy's grin grew even wider as he eagerly watched Sorana walk forward to collect a nearby chair before placing it next to him and taking a seat.

"You know, if we get caught, we'll be in big trouble," she informed him offhandedly, the remnants of her apprehension still clearly evident.

"No biggie," the boy replied, brushing the thought aside. "You can just tell them I forced you to or something. They'll believe that."

Sorana was taken aback by the boy's casual instance that she just blame everything on him... though it 'was' his fault, "You'd take all the blame, just like that, for me?" she asked suspiciously.

The boy shrugged, "Sure, they'll probably just think that anyway. Besides, you're teaching me how to play this Harmaninixium, so it's only fair."

"'Harmonixium'," Sorana corrected reflexively, still surprised by boy's words. "You like playing it that much?"

Kaden's face became thoughtful and he turned it toward the instrument, examining the floating, metallic cords carefully, "Not really," he admitted eventually, "this thing's kind of annoying. It's too random and illogical."

Sorana was nearly knocked over by the boy's answer. She didn't know how to handle hearing the single most chaotic being she'd ever met calling something else 'illogical'.

"Then why'd you come back?" she asked in confusion.

The boy turned to face her and mirrored her confused look, "Because we're friends," he explained as if it were obvious, before turning back around.

"Friends?" Sorana repeated in shock.

"Yeah, you said so yesterday," he answered simply.

Sorana felt her face warm slightly as she recalled having reflexively called the boy her friend to stop the supervisor from taking him away. The thought brought to her yet another odd set of feeling.

She already had many 'friends' from her class and among her family's associates. They had even openly declared themselves so, just as the boy had done, yet for some reason, the words felt different when he said them.

"Friends?" she breathed quietly through a half-hidden grin, "I don't even know your name."

The boy spun around and offered his hand, "Oh right, the name's Bartholomeus Rodchester von Rodingham, pleased to meet’cha."

Without thinking, Sorana reached her own hand forward and shook the boy's, before remembering that her instructor had called him 'Kaden' before... and that Bartholomeus Rodchester von Rodingham was easily the worst fake name she'd ever heard.

Sorana's grip suddenly tightened on the boy's hand and he was surprised by the girl's strength, "No it isn't!" she declared angrily. "Your name's Kaden, isn't it?"

Kaden looked surprised, "How'd you know that?" he questioned in amazement.

Sorana shook her head, "Never mind how I know, why did you lie to me?" she demanded. "You said we were friends!"

Sorana couldn't quite place why she had said those exact words, but she had suddenly felt betrayed by the boy's lie.

Kaden fought to pull his one hand free of Sorana's grip, which she held onto subconsciously, while he used the other one to rub the back of his head with a look of embarrassment on his face, "Sorry about that," he apologized sincerely, "I normally don't tell people my real name. That usually just causes problems for me. My real name is Kaden-"

But Sorana had stopped listening. She was still in the process of dealing with her anger and trying to sort out her feelings. She did, however, let go of his hand.

"So what's your name?" Kaden then asked, oblivious to the atmosphere Sorana was generating.

The question immediately pulled the young Lombax from her thoughts and her eyes grew wide.

Now that she was finding herself on the other side of the same question, she could understand why Kaden had done what he'd done, because she now felt an equally great concern over revealing her own name. She was afraid of how Kaden would react to finding out who she was, afraid that he'd become like all the other kids in her class.

Two thoughts stopped her from impulsively lying to Kaden as he had done to her. The first was that she'd just finished telling him off for that very reason. It would be completely hypocritical of her to do the same and she hadn't forgotten the brief sense of hurt she'd felt when she'd realized what he'd done. 

The second thought was the fact that the supervisor had called her by her family name the day before, so it was likely that Kaden already knew it.

Sorana took a deep breath and tried to look calmly at the boy, "My name is... Sorana Bellit," she admitted apprehensively.

Whatever Sorana's hopes were about Kaden's reaction to hearing her name, they were shattered as a strange look of surprise snaked its way across Kaden's face before he turned away as if suddenly embarrassed.

' _ I knew it!' _  Sorana's mind shouted in dismay,  _ 'It should have been obvious that Kaden was too oblivious to remember the supervisor using my name! Why would he have even asked if he'd already known?' _

Kaden's reaction was proof of Sorana's fear coming true. Now the crazy, unpredictable boy she'd just met would turn into yet another one of her robotic classmates. In fact, he might even become too afraid of her name to even talk to her... he might never come to see her again...

"What was that look for?" Sorana demanded out loud, desperate to verify her suspicions directly.

Kaden shrugged and seemed to find a sudden, intense interest in the harmonixium in front of him, "What look?" he questioned in a poor attempt to feign ignorance.

Sorana was not buying it. She put a firm hand on his shoulder and spun him halfway around. Kaden still fought not to look directly at her, though.

"That look you had when I told you my name," Sorana pressed unyieldingly, "You thought of something just now when you heard it, right?"

Kaden still refused to make eye contact and did not reply, but after a short moment of silence, he reluctantly nodded his head.

"What was it?" Sorana continued to question, subconsciously squeezing her hand tighter on Kaden's shoulder as her fear grew. When Kaden still did not reply she pressed again, "Tell me what that look was for," she insisted again, but this time in a much quieter voice that had been drained significantly of its anger. "You said you were my friend," she continued even more quietly this time, "so... why won't you tell me?" She spoke the last part so quietly that it was almost a whisper and it was filled with an air of sadness and resignation.

Kaden glanced back at Sorana and was startled by the desperate look in her eye.

The young, tan Lombax then began scratching his cheek awkwardly with his finger, "I was just thinking," he began hesitantly "that... I thought that... I just thought that 'Sorana' was a pretty name," he answered before turning around completely again in an attempt to hide his embarrassment.

Sorana felt as if she had suddenly become lighter than air as she slowly pulled her hand back from Kaden's shoulder, "Oh..." she breathed absentmindedly.

' _ He thought my name was pretty?' _  her mind repeated in astonishment.  _ 'That was his first thought after hearing my name?' _

The two young Lombaxes sat in silence for a long time. Kaden, not daring to look around again and Sorana lost in her thoughts.

Eventually, though, Kaden's embarrassment subsided and his curiosity took over. He began to turn around again to face Sorana, but the white-furred Lombax's hand shot out cuffed his ear gently.

Kaden grabbed his now stinging ear, reflexively, "What was that for?" he questioned unhappily.

"You're wasting time," explained Sorana with an authoritative tone. "We've got less than an hour before my butler comes to pick me up, so you need to start practicing now."

Kaden scrunched up his face, still unhappy about being cuffed, but he turned obediently back toward the harmonixium and began practicing.

Sorana let out a huge sigh of relief and felt her face burn hot as her heart continued to pump wildly. While it had taken her several moments to process them, Kaden's words brought an intense feeling of embarrassment to Sorana that she'd never felt before. She had stopped him from turning around, knowing that her emotions were probably displayed across her face.

Being told one's name was pretty was embarrassing enough, but that wasn't what had truly gotten to Sorana. What had really struck the young, white-furred Lombax was that Kaden had focused on her 'first' name.

All her life, Sorana had been referred to as 'Miss Bellit' by nearly everyone. Even many of her classmates were afraid to even use her first name. It had become such a pervasive thing that sometimes she almost forgot that she had a name of her own.

The feeling she got when she realized that, upon hearing her full name, Kaden's primary thoughts were 'Sorana' and not 'Bellit' was something that the young girl could not readily describe.

Still worried about what kind of expression she was wearing right now, Sorana began flooding Kaden with instructions, keeping him focused on the task at hand while also keeping her own thoughts from wandering too far.

In-between instructions and movement corrections, however, Sorana would catch herself leaning back and just staring at the boy. Kaden... her new friend.

* * *

"Sorana?" said a voice that was both distant and familiar.

Sorana tried to locate the source of the words, but everything was dark and she couldn't see anything.

"Hey, Sorana!" the voice said again, much louder this time.

Sorana's head suddenly sprang up from where it had been laying across her folded arms and her eyes shot open. She blinked hard as unforgiving light stung her eyes and encouraged her to keep them closed. 

After a few seconds of fighting it, though, the world began to come into focus and the outline of a tall, black furred Lombax revealed itself.

"Hhhmmm... Marith? Is that you?" asked Sorana sleepily.

"Well good morning princess, would you like me to bring you some breakfast and tea?" Marith asked sarcastically.

"No thanks," yawned Sorana, missing the sarcasm, "I've got an early class today."

Marith's expression then turned serious, "Do you know where you are right now?" she asked with concern.

Sorana blinked drowsily a few more times and looked around the classroom. She was slightly surprised to see that she was already in class, before remembering how she'd gotten there. She was more surprised, however, by the fact that the half-full room was quickly emptying of occupants.

Sorana's mouth fell open and she gasped, "Did I- Did I just... sleep through class?" she asked in disbelief. "Why didn't you wake me?"

Marith looked away guiltily, "I didn't really believe that 'you' of all people would sleep through class. I figured that you were just resting your head or maybe you had a good reason? Honestly, the whole situation was too bizarre for me to handle."

Sorana sank back into her seat and sighed deeply, "I can't believe I missed the whole lecture," she lamented. "What am I going to do about the test next month?"

Marith raised an eyebrow at her friend, "Um, maybe not worry about it for another few weeks like everyone else?" she offered sarcastically. Sorana shot her a look that said the very thought was ridiculous and Marith rolled her eyes, "Look, I'll give you a copy of my notes when we meet up with the girls to study later today. I know this might sound strange, but sometimes you can get help 'from' us as well."

Sorana cheered up and smiled at her friend, "Alright," she conceded before standing up again and gathering her things.

Together, the two of them proceeded to leave the class.

"Must have been a pretty good dream though," added Marith as they walked.

Sorana smiled, "It wasn't bad," she admitted. Then she realized what she was saying and suddenly got defensive, "But what makes you say that?" she questioned, too late to hide her nostalgic expression.

Marith grinned mischievously, "This is why," she said before holding up her digi-pad.

The entire screen of the device displayed an image of Sorana with her head lying across her arms on her desk and her eyes shut. She was clearly asleep, but she wore a large grin on her face and had drool running down her chin.

Sorana looked, eyes wide with horror at the image, before looking up at the gleeful grin on Marith's face. With striking clarity of mind, she then reached up to her mouth and felt, to her dismay, the large trickle of saliva that was still interwoven with her fur.

"You're not a very nice person," said Sorana as she wiped her chin clean.

Marith nodded knowingly, "I never said I was, Sorana," she stated before turning and continuing forward.

After a short moment to glare darkly at her friend's retreating back, Sorana smiled to herself, despite her embarrassment, before shaking her head and following behind.

 


	3. Past Perspective

The brown-furred Lombax sitting at the table dropped her digi-pen and fell forward onto its surface with a thud, "I can't take any more of this," she moaned in defeat. "I don't have the will to go on."

Hearing this, the tall, black-furred Lombax sitting across from her sighed, "Well then, you'd better find some, Clarissa," she replied without looking up from her own work, "Or at the very least take your complaining somewhere else so the rest of us can finish in peace."

Claire groaned again as she sat back up, "Oh come on Marith, have you no pity in your heart? It's been less than two weeks and the professor is already failing me!"

Sitting next to Marith, a much shorter Lombax with tan fur chimed in, "'While a single act of foolishness is considered a mistake, the same act of foolishness twice is considered a personality'," she added, quoting one of the authors they were supposed to be studying.

Claire gave her heckler a dark look, "I don't need to hear about personality problems from you, Toriam."

Toriam returned Claire's squinted gaze and opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by Marith, "Enough, you two," the tall Lombax commanded sternly. "Why can't either of you be like Sorana here? Look at her quietly completing her work without a single complaint."

At the mention of her name, Sorana was swiftly brought back to reality, "Hmm, what?" she asked in a slight daze.

The other three girls in her study group turned to look at her and appeared confused by her reaction.

Claire was the first to react, "See, even Sorana can't stomach this much work," she declared, eager to take advantage of the situation for her own benefit. "It's criminal I tell you!"

Toriam shook her head, "I'm sure she simply finished her work already and was just patiently waiting for you to beg her for help... again," she countered bitterly.

Sorana's ears drooped with embarrassment, "I wasn't really- I mean, I haven't gotten all that-"

"Nonsense," interrupted Marith confidently, "You really are too considerate for your own good, you know that? If you keep coddling Claire like this she'll never learn."

Sorana shook her head vigorously, "No, I mean it. I'm not really that far either, I was just-"

"Ooh, ooh, let me see," blustered Claire, seizing upon what she saw as an opportunity to look at the answers of their homework.

The brown-furred Lombax moved swiftly into position and looked over Sorana's shoulder before her white-furred friend even had time to react.

But, when Claire saw the truth, however, she pulled back in disbelief, "She's- she's... on section seven!"

There was an audible gasp from across the table as both Marith and Toriam looked visibly startled.

Sorana stood up indignantly and covered her digi-pad with her hands. 

From where she now stood she was able to peer down on her friends' screens as well, "What are you all talking about?" she demanded, "Toriam is the furthest out of all of you and she's only on section nine."

"Exactly," replied Marith with a concerned look on her face, "Since when have you ever been on our level? We all know that you only 'study' with us as a form of charity."

"No I don't," countered Sorana, "I mean, I needed Marith's notes from yesterday, and it's not like I just-"

This time it was Toriam who interrupted, counting off argument points on her fingers as she did, "You always finish your work before us, your answers are never wrong, you never ask any questions, and you always answer ours," she pointed out bluntly. However, there was no condescension in her words despite the tone in which they were used. "You might as well be our professor for all the help this study group does 'you'."

Sorana blushed slightly at the compliment, "Well, I-"

It was Claire's turn again, "Yeah Sorana, you're like some kind of homework genius or something!"

At the mention of the word 'genius', however, Sorana's face suddenly darkened and the atmosphere around them seemed to grow thicker somehow, "I'm not a genius," she countered pointedly.

The tone of her voice wasn't sharp, but it was heavy enough that none of her three friends knew what to say next.

Suddenly realizing her change in attitude, Sorana's features softened and she sat down before looking away in embarrassment.

With the sudden tension in the air relieved, Marith, Claire, and Toriam looked at each other intensely in an effort to communicate without words.

' _ Sounds like Sorana's got 'genius' issues,' _  said Claire's facial expression.

Toriam put on an intense, but curious expression,  _ 'We should ask her about it,' _  she thought.  _ 'As her friends, we need to help her with issues like this… whatever 'this' is.' _

Marith shook her head,  _ 'You heard the way she spoke. If she wants to talk about what's bothering her, we'll listen, but we shouldn't pry into her private feelings if she's uncomfortable with it. For now, let's just change the subject,'  _ she expressed, referring to rule 12, article 5 of The Girl Code, which stated that friends must respect a friend's desire not to talk about something.

Marith looked to Toriam, who reluctantly nodded her head in agreement before they both turned to Claire, who then nodded dutifully before she turned to face Sorana with determination. 

Marith and Toriam then turned back to each other and traded confused looks.

"So what's your issue with being called a genius?" their brown furred friend asked blatantly.

Toriam and Marith nearly fell out of their seats in surprise as they both realized that Claire was oblivious to the subtle language they’d been speaking.

She wasn't entirely oblivious, however, as the bloody daggers that the two girls glared at her with were visible, even to her. Claire shrunk back into her seat while trying to make herself as small as possible.

Marith sighed again and once more assumed her role as damage controller, "Sorana, just ignore Claire," the tall Lombax began apologetically. "You know how she-"

But this time it was Sorana's turn to interrupt, "No… it's fine," she said dismissively with a soft smile.

The smile was returned by her friend, along with visible signs of relief, "You know, Sorana," Marith continued, "you can talk to us about anything."

Sorana nodded, "I know that, Marith," she answered gratefully, "but really girls, it's no big deal. I've just been a little distracted, that's all. Besides, I know worrying about him isn't even-"

"Him?" rang a chorus of three voices as a sudden electricity filled the air. 

All barriers of tension or modesty were immediately shattered by the sheer force of their pure curiosity.

"There's a guy?" "What's his name?" "What's your relationship?" "How old is he?" came a blitz of questions so fast that Sorana didn't have time to register who had said them.

"There is no 'guy'," she answered firmly, but much too reflexively.

"Hmmmmmm?" the three girls intoned with suspicion, noting their friend's reaction time.

While the Girl Code made it clear that a girl's personal feelings are to be taken into account when 'prying', article 6 of rule 12 explicitly states that all bets are off when there is a guy involved.

"You said 'him'," noted Toriam, who was secretly elated to see Sorana's porcelain armor crack a little.

"Who were you thinking about just now?" Marith pushed next, with a surprisingly serious tone compared to the others.

Sorana scowled briefly to herself for her slip of the tongue, before reluctantly answering, "He's just an old friend of mine and I haven't heard from him in a while. It's not what you all think."

Claire's expression became uncharacteristically thoughtful, as if she was recalling something vague in her memory, "It's not that 'Kaden' guy you're always messaging, is it?" she asked.

Sorana spun her head around and fixed her roommate with a cold, hard gaze, "How did you know that?" she demanded.

Claire moved back from Sorana instinctively before shrugging, "I sometimes read your digi-station messages when I need inspiration for my books," she admitted without a hint of guilt.

"So what's he like?" asked Toriam, directing her question this time to Claire rather than Sorana, who was still recovering from the casual, unashamed way she'd learned that her privacy was being violated on a regular basis.

Claire put her hand on her chin to think as she avoided Sorana's continued indignant glares, "I don't know really, I haven't gotten too deep into the backlogs… yet. But I do know that he's in the Science Field and uses lots of big, annoying, sciency words; Sorana's search history if full of their definitions. When she replies though she's usually just telling him what to do and to be careful about stuff… it's a little boring," Claire noted with a look of disappointment to Sorana.

This look quickly vanished as Sorana's gaze hit her again and she turned back away before continuing, "Ehem, the last message he sent was just before that Military Field tournament last week, I think he was participating in it. I haven't seen anything from him since then and Sorana's been writing all kinds of desperate-" Claire's eyes got wide, "Wait, was that him on your NID this morning?"

Sorana was about to reply to Claire, though not with the answer to her question, when Marith interjected, "Is he why you've been acting so strange lately," she asked with genuine concern evident in her voice. "Falling asleep in class, not focusing on your homework, I thought something was up with you. Is this all because of him?"

"No!" Sorana shot back protectively, but then hesitated after she had time to think about it, "Well… it's not really 'his' fault… Not-not completely."

Sorana's broken response was all the girls needed to release the floodgates,

"Oh, something did happen!" squealed Claire excitedly.

"What did he do?" demanded Marith protectively.

"Did he hurt you?" asked Toriam, with an uncharacteristic hint of actual concern.

The barrage of questions came almost simultaneously and Sorana's eyes opened wide as she tried to process them, "No, nothing like that!" she answered reflexively again.

"How long have you known him?" asked Claire, who now had her digi-pad and digi-pen at the ready.

"Then why was he weighing on your mind?" questioned Marith, suspicion clearly evident in her voice.

"Should we hurt 'him'?" asked Toriam, far too eagerly to be comforting.

"No!" Sorana countered again. "I said he didn't do anything,"

"What are his hobbies?" pressed Claire, writing things down despite not receiving any answers.

"I have a friend in the Military Field… he'll take care of it," said Toriam, with a reassuring nod that was anything but.

Sorana was trying hard to regain her conversational footing and she started to push back, "Stop it! None of this is your business... Any of you!" she added with an extra scowl toward Claire.

Reacting to the pushback, the other three girls united in their resolve and pushed harder and began to reveal what they were all really thinking.

"What's your relationship with him?" Marith demanded, sounding almost motherly in the way she said it.

"He must be pretty high-class for Sorana to have her eye on him," pointed out Claire thoughtfully.

"He doesn't 'sound' high-class," Toriam countered. "What's his family name?"

Sorana was starting to reach her limit, "We're just friends," she insisted under a forced calm, "and his surname is-"

Claire put the final nail in with a simple gesture of her head and knowing expression, "Is he hot?"

Finally hitting her tipping point Sorana snapped, "Alright!" she shouted in a voice louder than any of her friends had thought possible for her. 

The effect was immediate and all the questions ceased.

Though the three girls had been momentarily startled silent by the sheer volume of Sorana's voice, the look in their eyes made it clear that they had not yielded. Like a sharkigator to blood, the three Lombaxes had smelled gossip and were now driven by their instinctual need for 'pry'.

Sorana met their gaze stalwartly, but after a short, silent battle of wills, she resigned herself with a deep sigh, "Fine… I'll tell you about Kaden."

At these words, Claire let out a squeak of delight and quickly made her way to the opposite side of the table.

Together with Marith and Toriam, the three of them sat across from Sorana, each with a different expression and intent, but they all at least partly shared a common excitement, like children about to hear a campfire story.

Sorana took a moment to lament her situation before searching for where to start.

"I wouldn't call Kaden my 'oldest' friend," she began slowly, "but my relationship with him has always been rather… unique. I first met him when I was still in Primary Education. His name didn't belong to any of the affluent families that I knew of, but he had absolutely no regard for my name either, which was a first for me. Our early interactions weren't much more than a few 'playdates' between kids. We'd meet a couple of times a week in our school's music room. What made it unique was that I had been told by my music instructor not to associate with him, so I had to keep our friendship a secret."

"Sorana? Disobeying an instructor?" Claire said in mock disbelief. "I thought we were talking about your past, not a fairy tale- ouch!"

Marith had reached over and pinched one of Claire's ears for her mocking comment.

However, Sorana did not look offended. In fact, she even smiled slightly and nodded her agreement, "It's true. Not only did I ‘not’ stop him from visiting with me, I even started to go out of my way to stay late in the music room, using the excuse that I wanted more time to practice alone just so I could spend more time with him. This was the first rule I ever broke and our meetings were the first secret I ever had. In a way, it kind of felt like he didn't really exist, since I couldn't talk about him with anyone else. It made our time together feel almost like a dream. A dream where I didn't have to be 'Sorana Bellit'."

At that, Toriam looked at Sorana with genuine confusion, "How can 'you' not be 'you'?" she asked.

Sorana looked to Toriam and then looked off vaguely at the ceiling as she thought of an answer, "Kaden didn't care about names or social status, but he knew he would have gotten into a lot of trouble if anyone found out we were meeting. This meant I could talk to him about literally anything and I knew he'd keep it a secret. For the first time that I can remember, I didn't have to think about whether what I was going to say next was 'acceptable for a Bellit', and I was finally free to talk honestly about my classmates and family. I could complain about things that I hadn't even known were bothering me, until I brought them up."

"So you just talked to this guy about your problems nonstop for years?" asked Claire with a look of mild disappointment. Clearly, she was hoping for something more.

Hearing this, Toriam turned to Claire, "And what's wrong with that?" she demanded.

Sorana shook her head and pushed on before her two friends started to argue, "Of course not, Claire. I didn't even know how to talk to him at first. Most of the time I was either teaching him how to play the harmonixium or he was telling me all about his adventures and his experiments. It was fascinating to hear, he did anything he wanted, with almost complete disregard for rules or what others thought of him. The very idea of that kind of life was alien to me, but, if I'm honest… a little exciting. Since he knew I also couldn't tell anyone about our meetings either, I became the only person he ever told about his more 'questionable' exploits." Sorana's hand reflexively found its way to her face as she tried to hide a small, but gleeful smile and a slight blush, "Knowing that always made me feel kind of... special."

Sorana then realized where her story was drifting and there was a short silence as she put the brakes on it and took a moment to gather her thoughts.

"Well go on," pressed Toriam, eager to hear more, "You said, 'at first' you weren't really comfortable about talking with him, but what about after? How much did he tell you?... Oh, how much did you tell him?!"

Sorana noted the mischievous tone in Toriam's voice, but she brushed it aside and continued regardless, "Well, 'he' was never really shy about what he said, so, naturally, I began talking more freely about myself as well. He didn't complain about it or tell me to stop, so each time we met I'd talk a little bit more and more, until… now that I look back, I realize I may have even gone on a rant a few times. It was incredibly freeing… at least at first. Unfortunately, I later found out that venting to Kaden did have its downsides."

"Downsides?" repeated Toriam with a dreamy look in her eyes, "What could be the downside to having a guy who willingly listened to you talk about anything you wanted, as much as you wanted?"

To everyone's surprise, Sorana actually laughed before catching herself.

She then cleared her throat and explained, "Kaden has always been a brilliant little Lombax and, even though he was famous for 'causing' problems, he was actually a problem solver at heart. He usually only broke something because he was attempting to fix it or improve it. Whenever I would mention my problems to him, there was always a small risk that he'd take it upon himself to 'help out'."

Sorana couldn't prevent a large smile from bending her lips as she remembered a past incident, "Like this one time, I hadn't been able to study properly for a history exam. I spent nearly all of my next meeting with Kaden going on and on about how I knew that I had failed the test. The next day, to my initial relief, I discovered that I had gotten a perfect score on the test, but after I thought about it some more I grew suspicious and I mentioned it to Kaden. Without a single sign of guilt, or hint that he was even aware that what he'd done was wrong, he told me that he'd hacked into the school mainframe and changed the test answers on my exam before it was graded." Sorana shook her head as she remembered her childhood thoughts at that moment, "I felt so guilty about it that I refused to eat my favorite dessert for a month."

"Oh, come on!" cried Claire, who now had Toriam's dreamy look in her eyes as well, "Having a guy who fixes all your test answers for you sounds like a fairy tale come true and it's not like anyone got hurt."

Sorana smiled again, "Well, sure. Not that time, no," she said casually. "But, especially after what happened at the Valmecha Zoo, I knew I needed to take extra care about what I told him."

At this, Marith's features became very serious, "What about that time at the zoo, Sorana?" she asked suspiciously. 

As Marith had been listening alongside Claire and Toriam, she had begun to suspect more and more that her good-natured friend might have gotten caught up in this 'Kaden's' illegal activities.

Sorana immediately recognized the intent of her friend's question and she quickly tried to ease her concerns, "It wasn't like he did anything illegal," she said, though she hesitated as her mind began sifting through a catalog of Kaden's misdeeds, each one worse than the last. "I mean, he never hurt anyone… not-not really… not... badly…" Unconvinced, Marith's eyes narrowed as she locked them with her friend's. Sorana tried one last time, "Not- uh, uh… Nobody died."

"Sorana!" barked Marith, deep concern apparent in her tone now.

Sorana put up her hands to calm her friend, "It's fine, Marith, really. Most of the stuff he did was more like a childish prank or an accident rather than a crime. Like, let's see, there was the time he accidentally vaporized the Valmecha Unity Park statue, I think he was actually trying to clean it… or maybe steal it? There was that time one of the Fifth District water parks mysteriously dried up, he mentioned something about trying to make the park's plumbing more efficient; oh and the time that the trees in the Lower Fourth District Community Park became sentient and started attacking picnickers, I have 'no' idea what he was doing that time, though. And… that's pretty much the gist of it."

Marith still didn't look satisfied, "And those were the worst of his crimes?" she questioned almost like she were an interrogator.

Sorana began to nod slowly, "They were… some of the worst ones, yes."

Sorana felt for her friend. She knew that Marith's only concern was for her well-being and she felt bad for not being entirely truthful with her, but she also knew that, despite how much time had passed since back then, she couldn’t reveal everything that Kaden had told her in confidence.

Like the origins of the mutated weasel colony that had escaped from their school's bio-lab and infested the city. They had been 'accidentally' modified to reproduce at an insane rate and nearly a third of the city had to be quarantined for extermination before they were all finally removed.

Also, despite the fact that Sorana found the whole event quite amusing, in hindsight, Kaden had even sworn her to secrecy about the reason half their school's student body had grown antlers on graduation day.

"But you still didn't tell us about the zoo?" intoned Claire with nothing but genuine curiosity on her mind.

Innocent though the question was, Sorana still flinched as if she had been physically hit by it. She had been trying to shift Marith's attention away from that particular subject and was caught off guard by Claire bringing it back up. She 'really' didn't want to detail that specific bit of history.

Marith turned her eyes from Claire and put them back squarely on Sorana. Then she sat up in her chair, making herself as tall as possible, and crossed her arms impatiently, "Well?" she asked, making it clear that she would not be swayed this time.

Sorana thought about her situation for a moment, but eventually conceded with a sigh and began to explain, "Did you know that the very first time a harmonixium player performs for an audience, it’s kind of a big deal? It's like a rite of passage. That fact alone would make anyone nervous, right? Well, in my particular case, my parents had decided to have me 'debut' at one of their charity events that were taking place at the Valmecha Zoo."

Sorana paused here and looked to her friends hesitantly in the hopes she could talk her way out of continuing, but between the eagerness in Claire and Toriam's eyes and the smoldering intensity of Marith's, she knew she had no choice.

"My parents told me about their plans less than a week prior to the event," Sorana continued, wringing her hands worriedly as she got closer to the end. "Of course, not wanting to disappoint them, I couldn't refuse. So, I practiced my performance as much as I could, and… of course, I liberally dumped my fears onto Kaden in between. Looking back now, I 'may' have exaggerated the severity of the situation a 'tiny' bit."

"Oh yeah?" interrupted Toriam with a crooked smile, "How so?"

Sorana fidgeted in her chair a bit and looked guilty, "I probably shouldn't have used the phrase 'shame to my family name and ancestors' as often as I did. Also, after having gotten to know how Kaden tends to take things very literally, I ‘definitely’ shouldn't have used the 'die' at all when I said things like 'die of embarrassment'. So, it's not even his fault really," she added in a desperate attempt to soften the blow.

"Sorana," said Marith in a slow and stern, but also caring tone, "What did he do?"

Sorana took a deep breath and a moment's pause to prepare herself, "Well, the day of the event came and, just as I was waiting backstage for my turn to perform, the park attendants suddenly began instructing everyone to leave. Apparently, one of the creatures they had on display had 'somehow' gotten out of its pen."

Claire and Toriam both leaned in eagerly and Marith began tapping her finger on her crossed arm impatiently, "And what kind of creature did he let out?"

Sorana winced like she was bracing to pull off a large bandage, "A… Sargassian Grunthor…"

The next few seconds were filled with dead silence as the three girls processed what they'd just heard.

Claire was the first to break the quiet, "You mean those dinosaur things?" she asked in disbelief. "The ones we learned about in Exotic Biology, that are three stories tall, spit balls of fire, and drool acid?"

Sorana nodded.

A slight smile split Toriam's lips and she leaned her chin on her hand, "How romantic," she muttered quietly, but ‘not’ sarcastically.

Marith was still too stunned to speak and simply stared, making Sorana worry, "Marith," she began firmly, seeing the look of utter disbelief in her protective friend's eyes, "Everything is fine, you don't need to worry."

"'Breathes fire', Sorana," Marith repeated with a pleading look, as if those words alone should convey everything she wanted to say at that moment.

"Yes, they do," said Sorana cautiously, "and yes…. it did, 'but'... nobody was hurt and it happened a long time ago when we were just kids," she insisted.

"How-" Marith began, but words were failing her at first. "How can you still be friends with this… nutcase?" she demanded, unable to comprehend this drastic new perspective into her prim and proper friend's life.

"Well that's the thing," Sorana began, "he doesn't actually do anything with the express 'purpose' of hurting people, he just doesn't ever really take it into account."

Sorana then realized immediately how bad what she had just said sounded and quickly pressed on, "I mean, yeah that's not good, of course, but it's because he's just so focused on what he's trying to accomplish. It's like nothing else matters to him. Times like the zoo incident, misguided as his efforts may have been, his only true goal was to 'help me' at all costs. When you really think about it, it's almost kind of… sweet."

Marith's expression seemed to become even more stupefied, which hadn't seemed possible a second ago. Her mouth moved like she wanted to speak, but no words came out. She turned to her two other friends for support, but Claire was feverishly trying to scribble notes onto her digi-pad and Toriam was staring off dreamily.

After a long, tense moment, the tall, protective Lombax took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, before leaning back in her chair, "Fine," she muttered under her breath in defeat, though her expression still said she was anything but ‘fine’.

Seeing that Marith had resigned, Claire decide to take over control of the conversation to get more details on this 'more-interesting-by-the-minute' back story, "So how did you keep your friendship a secret all these years?" she asked curiously.

Sorana's eyes lingered on Marith for a while, but eventually, she turned to Claire and shook her head, "Oh no, we only had to do that during Primary Education. After we graduated and started attending to Principal Education we were able to meet openly, though I doubt anyone ever suspected how close we actually were."

"And how's that?" questioned Toriam, snapping out of her fantasies. "I can't imagine anyone from the Bellit family having a friendship with a no-named trouble maker and it not causing a stir."

Once again, Sorana smiled, "That actually 'was' all thanks to Kaden," she explained with a hint of pride. "When he realized that we would no longer be able to meet once I graduated from Primary, he began improving his test scores and, miraculously, stayed out of trouble... mostly. By the time I graduated, he had achieved the highest aptitude scores of any other student in the entire school. And, not only were his scores good enough to get him a scholarship to my private Principal Education school, but, being a year younger than me, he was even able to skip his final grade of Primary and we began that next year together in the same class."

Marith seemed to come back to life and she began shaking her head unhappily, "I still don't get it," she began bitterly. "You said he had a bad reputation, but they still gave him a scholarship? Even besides that, as small as it 'seemed', wasn't anyone concerned about your relationship at all?"

Sorana shrugged, "Everyone loves a turnaround story," she said with a knowing grin. "A trouble-making child who suddenly gives up his mischievous ways and studies hard to become the top-ranked student in the system; that's a pretty good one. I'm sure all of Kaden's teachers were either eager to tote him as their own little success story, or they just wanted him gone. As for me, well, I think most people saw our relationship as a charity case, just the kind-hearted 'Miss Bellit' reaching out to the 'outsider' in her class."

Toriam stared hard at Sorana, studying her closely, before nodding her head, "Yep, I totally see that. That's totally something you would do."

Sorana bowed her head toward Toriam, deciding to take her words as a compliment.

Claire looked up from the digi-pad she was now blatantly recording on, "So, you're saying that this guy, your childhood friend, gave up a life of crime and mediocrity all so he could remain close to you?" she asked as her eyes seemed to sparkle.

Sorana fought back the grin that would have made her true thoughts obvious and instead wore a casual expression and waved her hand dismissively, "I couldn't say for sure, to be honest. It's possible that Kaden had just decided he was tired of always getting into trouble. Besides, it's not like he completely stopped breaking rules, he mostly just tried harder to not get caught… more or less." Sorana finished her explanation with a sideways glance at Marith, but her friend had already resigned herself and was pretending not to hear.

"Interesting," said Toriam with her usual tone that made it hard to tell if she was mocking someone, or being genuine, "but you still haven't explained why 'genius' is your trigger word."

At the mention of the word again, Sorana's eyes darkened like the first time, "Oh… that," she said coldly, making even Toriam immediately regret bringing the subject back up.

But after a short moment, Sorana simply took a short breath and let out another sigh, "I guess we did get kind of side-tracked there, but now that you know the backstory, it should be pretty obvious by now that Kaden is extremely intelligent… in an objective sort of way. The thing is, though, I never really understood just how intelligent he was. Kaden and I started our friendship as teacher and student, where I would teach him how to play the harmonixium every now and then. Even though our friendship slowly changed over time and became more open, we always took a little time here and there for our 'lessons' as we got older."

As Sorana recalled the times, she smiled softly, but the expression slowly faded away as she continued, "The first time I noticed something odd, was when I saw how quickly Kaden had mastered the basics. At that point, ‘I’, like everyone else, had mostly written him off as just a typical trouble maker, so when I realized that he had mastered in a week what had taken me well over a month, I was surprised, to say the least. Still, I chalked that up to a combination of my 'brilliant' teaching skills and a simple fluke. After all, it was hardly something I wanted to admit."

Sorana's soft smile then reappeared, but it was now filled with sadness, "But, several years later, when I found myself teaching him things that I myself had only just learned, I couldn't ignore it anymore. I was a year older than him, I had been studying and practicing to be a top level musician diligently day in and day out, long before he'd ever even touched a harmonixium, and at the time I was being taught directly by some of the most prominent instructors in Valmecha… yet still, Kaden caught up to me in just a couple of years."

Sorana's friends could feel the depressing mood that stirred the air as Sorana paused in reflection. Each one of them wanted to say something to break it, but none of them could. Being students of Nova Academy, all of them were considered superior in one way or another, but as with all creatures who strove to be the best, there is no greater fear than some 'genius' coming by and easily surpassing all they've worked for.

Sorana's eyes began wandering off as if looking at something far away, "It wasn't like I was blindsided either," she admitted sadly. "I saw it coming months before it happened. At the time, I already had a hefty practice regiment from my instructors and I nearly doubled that in my attempt to fend off Kaden's approach. But, when he began mastering skills and techniques from nothing more than the concepts I was still struggling with, I could no longer run from the truth."

Sorana paused again momentarily and she squinted as if whatever invisible thing she was staring at was becoming harder to see, "At that point in my life, I had very few things that I could say were 'mine' rather than something I'd simply been given as a 'Bellit'. One of those things, that I could truly be proud of, was my harmonixium skills." Sorana paused once again as if she was only now putting a long-held feeling into words, "Never in my life, before or since, have I ever felt so crushed."

Marith finally managed to break her silence, "But I've heard you play and you're amazing," she countered desperately. "And I've never heard of any 'Kaden' in the Art Field's harmonixium classes."

But Sorana shook her head and shrugged weakly, "That's because he's stopped playing the harmonixium. He told me one day, as I was desperately trying to keep up with 'him' that he was bored and didn't want to play anymore. I guess after he realized that he'd surpassed his master, he just lost interest. But, I'm sure I wouldn't even hold a candle to him now, if he had decided to stay with it."

Once again there was a pause and once again Sorana's friends found themselves unable to speak. It was possible that Sorana herself was taking these breaks in the subconscious hope that her friends might be able to counter her argument, as Marith had tried, but no words came this time.

Sorana then took a deep breath and continued, "It's funny really. I used to think of Kaden as if he were someone from a dream, like he existed in a world that was entirely separate from mine. Now... I still think that very same thing, just not for the same reasons."

Once more a heavy silence fell over the group as all three of Sorana's friends absorbed what they'd heard and regretted pushing their friend into revealing her private matters. Each one unconsciously avoided making eye contact with anyone else and instead simply looked downward sullenly and wondered whether they should apologize or not.

A loud 'bang' rang out through the room, making Claire, Marith, and Toriam all jump in surprise.

The three friends quickly looked up in search of the source and found Sorana with her palms pressed against the table and a mischievous grin on her face, "Now, if we're done dredging up my past and digging through my personal life, how about we get back to our homework?" she offered in her usual, cheerful voice.

Her friends all blinked in confusion for a few seconds, before visible signs of relief moved through their bodies and they too smiled. The three other girls then agreed to her offer eagerly and gladly returned their focus to their work. Even Claire was mildly thankful for the change of subject… very mildly.

As the group somberly reorganized itself and digi-pad programs were reopened, Sorana felt slightly guilty for playing on her friends' emotions the way she did, but she also couldn't help but feel satisfied.

Everything she had told her friends was the absolute truth, even down to her feelings about being easily outstripped in her area of expertise by her oldest and closest friend. It was also true, however, that it had been several years since then. Both of them had gotten older and had matured greatly, or... she had at least. And despite some hard feelings that she still harbored, she had been able to keep their friendship to this day.

Sorana was also surprised to note a faint lightness that had come over her. Though she had resisted as best she could, it would seem that talking about her past had somewhat put her mind at ease about Kaden and the MSE Tournament... for the moment at least.

With renewed focus, Sorana set into her work with her friends, but, just as she was beginning section 8, an icon appeared in the corner of her digi-pad, followed by a soft, alert tone.

Sorana studied the icon for a moment and quickly recognized it as a NID message notification. With a swift tap of her finger, an old, still image of her friend Alister Azimuth appeared next to the words, "Have acquired the target. Will bring him to dinner in the Art Field, as discussed. P.S. He's fine."

In an instant, the sudden lightness Sorana had felt evaporated and excitement began pumping through her veins. She managed to stop just short of getting up from her chair and running from the room.

After a couple of controlled breaths to calm down, Sorana addressed her friends, "Oh, you know what girls? I'm sorry, but I just remembered I have a meeting with someone today," she said, with a slightly higher pitch than she would have liked.

Her friends all looked up at her with confused expressions. They all immediately found it strange that Sorana had forgotten a prior engagement and had not told them ahead of time, but none of them felt like mentioning it.

"That's fine," began Marith kindly. "Let's just meet up tomorrow to go over everything, ok?"

Sorana had not waited for an answer and was already sliding the last of her work materials into a small carrying bag, "Yes, good. Alright then, see you tomorrow." And with that, she threw her bag across her back and vanished out of the nearest exit.

The three friends watched her go and blinked in bewilderment at the speed with which she had disappeared.

Claire nodded her head with determination, "I'm going to write a book about this," she declared dutifully.

"That's stupid," mocked Toriam. "Nobody would want to read a book about that."

"Oh yes they would," countered Claire confidently. "If I write it, they will come."

Toriam laughed harshly, "Ha, the only people who would read that kind of story would have to be-"

"Enough," ordered Marith with a stern voice. "I'm in no mood for your bickering right now," she added, making it clear that they should get back to their work, or else.


	4. A Dish Best Not Served At All

Sorana moved swiftly through the maze-like halls of the Art Field. 

Even after all the time she’d spent trying to map the routes in her head (an inherently impossible task, given that many areas were constantly moved around or changed at seemingly random intervals), she still had to be cautious when moving through them, so as not to become lost entirely.

This time, however, she was far too excited to slow down. After days of silence and worry, she was finally getting to see Kaden again. The thought of which only made her move faster the further along she went.

After having to backtrack her steps a mere three times (a new record), she climbed up the final ladder and slid down one last firebax's pole before landing firmly on the dining level of the Art Field.

The white-furred Lombax felt her heart race as she bounded from the deceleration pad and nearly sprinted the distance to the large doorway ahead. 

Just before crossing the threshold, however, she came to a sudden halt.

According to Alister, he and Kaden would be waiting just on the other side of this wall. Knowing this, Sorana took a deep breath to calm herself and hid as much evidence of her excitement as she could.

One reason she had for doing this was posterity. Regardless of everything else, Sorana 'was' a Bellit and she did not want to look too disheveled in front of others.

The other reason was that she wasn't completely sure what condition Kaden was in. Despite the assurances in Alister's message, Sorana could not shake the feeling that something might have happened to Kaden to cause him to cut off communication the way he did and she wanted to be prepared for it. 

Even if there was nothing wrong physically, which was likely Alister's only concern, there still might be something wrong psychologically; she knew how much Kaden hated to lose.

Once she had her body under control, Sorana added the final touch with a firm press of a button located on the front of her left shoulder. This switch, in turn, released a series of micro spools that had been holding Sorana's dress close to her body, making it appear no different from a typical, one-piece, all-wear, Lombax suit. 

With the spools unrolled, however, her clothing spread out to become a moderately lavish dinner dress and in an instant transformed her from casual mode to formal. What an age to be alive.

Having recomposed her demeanor and made herself presentable, Sorana took one last breath and walked elegantly through the doorway.

As the doors opened she was greeted by a large, bustling crowd made up of dozens of other students and a few robots, all of which were moving to and from the main dining area just ahead.

As usual, everyone was wearing Art Field 'casual', which meant literally anything. However, it wasn't just students wearing the wacky and wild getups that most people associated with the Art field which were on display here. Many of the Lombaxes present wore extravagant ensembles of fine suits and dresses, similar to Sorana's, though hers lacked any of the audacious jewelry that most of the others displayed proudly. The two, seemingly opposite styles, somehow meshed perfectly in this place.

Despite the large crowd, however, it did not take Sorana long to find Kaden and Alister. Being two of the only Lombaxes in the area who were not from the Art Field, they were among the most commonly dressed and therefore stuck out completely from the extremes around them.

The young, tan-furred Lombax she'd ran all the way here to see was standing next to his white-furred friend, blatantly trying to keep his distance from the chaotic pieces of 'art' that surrounded him as if everyone else were carrying some sort of contagious disease. Seeing this, his friend jabbed him playfully with an elbow and grinned as he said something that Sorana couldn't make out from this distance. Kaden’s lips moved in reply to Alister, while he wore a grumpy expression, but a moment later he grinned as well and the two laughed together about whatever was said.

At that exact moment, when Sorana saw Kaden's awkward, but familiarly genuine smile, she realized that he was completely fine and she felt as if an enormous weight had suddenly been lifted from her. A combination of extreme relief and mild excitement rushed through her body, spreading feelings of warmth to every part of her as it went.

_ 'Once again,' _  she thought happily,  _ 'my concern was for nothing.' _

Sorana continued walking, moving toward her two friends eagerly.

With the invisible weight of worry now removed, Sorana found that she felt much lighter. This caused her to walk slightly faster than she'd intended and she ended up needing to check her pace and force herself to slow her movement back down to a dignified walk.

As she pressed purposefully onward, she kept her eyes focused on the distant forms of her two friends. She did this as second nature, so that when they finally spotted her as well, she could, in turn, react swiftly with the proper greeting, as etiquette dictated, depending on the distance left between them.

If Kaden and Alister spotted her while she was still some distance away, she would give a slight wave to let them know she too had seen them. If she got close enough, she would give a slight bow and move forward a few more steps before offering a word of greeting. Finally, if they didn't notice her until she was within formal earshot, she would go straight to the verbal greeting to make her presence known, possibly with a clearing of the throat.

Sorana typically executed such formalities subconsciously, having had them drilled into her since she was very young. The motions were so reflexive to her, especially while wearing a dress, that she rarely even realized she was doing them; they were as natural as walking and breathing to her.

Every time she performed them in the presence of Kaden, however, she was struck forcefully by how completely wasted they were on him. This caused her to recall how often a similar situation had played out, one where she had learned of Kaden's involvement in something dangerous, causing her to worry about his safety. 

Sorana smiled softly to herself as she remembered how each and every one of those times her incorrigible, tan-furred friend would show up, just as he was now, safe and cheerful, as if nothing had happened at all.

This was one of the many things Sorana had found so intriguing about Kaden. The way he brushed off extreme events with such ease that one would think they were typical for him. Sorana's smile then faded slightly as she corrected herself, she knew very well that these kinds of things 'were' typical for Kaden.

A mild, but familiar sense of irritation simmered up in the back of her mind. Not towards Kaden, entirely, but to herself for having once again worried about nothing. One would think that, with as many times as this had happened, she would know better, but still she found herself here again.

Sorana was about halfway across the room to her destination and by this time, she was beginning to notice that the warmth and initial relief of seeing Kaden safe was already starting to fade, rapidly being replaced by a sense of exhaustion. She had, after all, just spent the last couple of days under the constant stress of not knowing anything about one of her oldest friend's condition. This feeling of tiredness reminded her that she hadn't had a decent sleep since the final day of the MSET and also that she needed to ask Kaden why he hadn't properly returned her NID messages.

It was at this moment that Alister spotted Sorana's approach. He gave Kaden a quick pat on the shoulder to get his attention and the two looked up to meet her gaze. 

Sorana quickly gauged their distance, they were still too far away for her to simply say a greeting, but she had just passed beyond the 'wave' distance. In accordance with the decorum she'd been taught, Sorana offered a polite smile and a bow of her head in acknowledgment. Having grown up learning similar etiquette, Alister subtly returned the nod with one of his own, placing a stiff arm across his chest and the other behind his lower back, acknowledging that they were mutually aware of each other's presence.

Then, in complete disregard for anything that could be considered well-mannered, Kaden grinned widely and threw his hand in the air, waving it in a wide arc to make sure Sorana saw him.

Sorana's soft smile grew slightly bigger as she observed his movements. She and Alister did such things out of habit and, this being the Art field, there was no real need to stand on etiquette, but it was always refreshing to see Kaden's obliviousness to any kind of formal behavior. It stood in stark contrast to virtually everyone else she'd known while growing up.

Kaden's manner was just what she'd expect from him, blatantly on display and pointed at her as if he didn't have a care in the world. Never mind that he'd just spent the last few days ignoring her communications and was only here now because Alister had managed to pull him out of his hole like some kind of rat.

Fearing that her friend would continue waving wildly until she responded, Sorana returned the wave, though, she did so in a much more subtle and polite fashion. Kaden then dropped his arm, but kept his cheerful grin, smiling eagerly at her as she came closer.

That wide grin that he wore seemed to grow blindingly large as it made explicitly clear to Sorana exactly how Kaden had spent his past few days. That grin told her that he'd never been in any kind of danger at all and had not been seriously hurt in any way.

That arrogantly cheerful grin also told her that he'd only disappeared because he'd consciously chosen to do so and, more than likely, it was just to toil over some new obsession… again. 

That fat, stupid grin made it very, very clear just how ignorant and oblivious its raritanium-skulled wearer was to how worried she had been this entire time!

* * *

Kaden's grin disappeared and his ears perked up as he suddenly sensed the presence of approaching danger. Not knowing where it was coming from at first, he turned to Alister to see if he'd noticed it too.

Alister, though, having recognized the way Sorana's pace had been picking up and how the weight of her steps had been increasing since he'd spotted her, was already standing several feet away.

In a mild panic, Kaden searched for the source of the threat, but he managed to find it pretty quickly when he locked eyes with Sorana again.

_ 'Oh no! She's mad!' _  Kaden thought before desperately running through his mind in search of what he'd done to upset her… this time.

_ 'Did I forget her birthday again?' _  he wondered. No… her birthday was fairly close to his so it hadn't passed yet.

_ 'Did I forget my birthday again?' _  he questioned next in a panic. No… his birthday had been just before they'd come to Nova. He remembered because Sorana had made plans for them to celebrate it and he'd forgotten about it. She was mad then too.

_ 'Is she still mad about the birthday thing?' _  his mind shouted one last time before Sorana reached him.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Kaden realized that he had no answer and no time, so he reflexively moved to make his escape, but a lighting quick and surprisingly strong hand caught a firm hold of one of his ears before pulling back hard and bringing him face to face with Sorana and eye to eye with her angry glare.

"And just where have you been, Kaden?" she asked coldly.

Kaden gulped hard. What Sorana had said sounded like a question, but somehow he felt like he'd already given her the wrong answer.

* * *

Kaden and Alister were sat down at a table in the nearby dining area. Neither of them had any clue what they were in for, but neither could refuse when Sorana had firmly told them to 'join her for dinner'.

In actuality, they were in the same Art Field cafeteria where they'd eaten together during their first week at the school, but one would never know just by looking at it.

Instead of the wild, jungle theme the area had been decked out with last time, the entire eatery had been redecorated to look like a fancy restaurant. The tables were all arranged in an orderly and formal fashion, each covered in a brilliantly white tablecloth.

Most tables were then occupied by groups of students who were, for the most part, dressed in fine garments, while being served by equally finely dressed waiter-bots, which explained the large number of poshly dressed students from earlier.

The two boys felt out of place in their casual clothes, but it was a different feeling from the 'out of place' way that the Art Field usually made them feel. 

Alister hadn't been told about the formal theme before he'd brought Kaden either. It was only when they'd had time to settle down did they notice Sorana's casual-fine attire and, though she looked good in it, they were both too afraid to comment on it.

On the other hand, the silence was going on for far too long now. Sorana hadn't said a word since telling them to take a seat and had just been staring unblinkingly into her menu, which was made out of what appeared to be actual paper. The decadence was almost unnerving.

Swallowing hard to clear his surprisingly dry throat, Kaden attempted to break the silence, "So, uh, what are we eating?" he ventured cautiously.

Sorana's eyes shot upward in one swift movement, though her head remained pointed down at her menu, and they locked onto Kaden's eyes with terrifying accuracy, "Eating?" she repeated with something of a hiss. Kaden's mind suddenly filled with an image of a small rodent being eyed by some great serpent ready to devour it whole. "That's a good question," she continued, but her tone didn't sound curious at all. "What have you been eating since the tournament ended?"

Kaden's expression stiffened as he tried hard not to let his thoughts show. He had been too focused on analyzing Kor's tournament performance to do much of anything else, let alone eat properly. He had sustained himself with almost nothing but vending machine snacks that he'd managed to stock up on when his hunger had grown beyond what he could ignore and pizza, which, to Kaden's great and joyous discovery, could actually be delivered to his room.

To make matters worse, this diet was also fairly typical of his entire time since coming to Nova, even before the tournament. His eating habits had always been a pet peeve of Sorana's and he briefly wondered if this was what she was mad about.

The tan-furred Lombax continued to hold his silence as he wilted under his childhood friend's intense gaze. He didn't dare reply, as he knew she would discern the truth from his words, but his silence was quickly becoming all the reply she needed. He didn't know what to do. He could feel the serpent of her anger coiling itself in preparation to strike, but he had nowhere to run.

"Are we ready to or-dér?" asked a server-bot in an odd accent, who had suddenly appeared at Sorana's side. Sorana continued to stare for a few more seconds, though it felt much longer to Kaden, before finally turning away.

Kaden breathed out in relief, realizing that he'd been holding his breath.

Kaden's relief didn't last long, however, because Sorana began replying to their serverbot in another language. To Kaden, it sounded like old Markazian, which he did not know much of, but he was able to determine from the way Sorana was pointing at Alister and himself that she was ordering for the both of them as well.

What concerned him most, though, was why she'd chosen to do so in a way that neither of them could understand. Kaden had a translation function programmed into his NID, but he didn't dare risk antagonizing Sorana by zoning out in order to deep access it and activate the function.

After a few moments of unrecognizable conversation, Sorana had finished giving their orders and the serverbot bowed obediently before leaving to process them.

Once the server was gone, however, Sorana's focus immediately returned to Kaden. This time she folded her arms across her chest for effect and, for the next minute, the two simply stared at each other without saying a word.

"H-hey," poked Alister's voice cautiously, "everyone's wearing some pretty fancy clothing. What's the occasion?" he asked, nervously hoping to change the subject.

Sorana's gaze turned to Alister and she considered him for a moment before turning back to Kaden, "Didn't you know?" she replied with a sarcastic growl. "We're celebrating Kaden coming out of his hole and granting us all the honor of his presence. It's a special occasion since any other day he's too busy to 'even answer the communicator that's implanted into his skull'!"

Alister looked like he regretted asking his question.

Sorana noticed his expression from her peripheral and sighed, before relaxing her gaze slightly, she wasn't upset with Alister after all, "There is no real 'occasion'," she explained with a tinge of sharpness still in her voice. "The themes of the eating halls are determined by the master chef in charge of them. I guess today Frédéric was in a formal mood."

Not daring to speak again, Alister simply nodded his thanks for the answer.

With nothing else to say, the veil of silence covered the table once more. Not even the sound of nearby diners seemed to be able to pierce it until, thankfully, a pair of server-bots arrived, carrying three large plates between them, each with a metal cover hiding what was on them. 

The servers then placed the meals on the table in front of each of the three Lombaxes.

In one swift motion, they removed all the covers simultaneously, "Bon appétite," one said in a synthetic voice.

Kaden looked down at his dish, curious to see what he'd been given, and the moment he recognized what it was, a look of sheer horror formed on his face. 

When the cover had been removed it had revealed only a single bowl sitting in the center of a plate underneath and that bowl was absolutely overflowing with... Foedus beans.

In the entirety of all the Polaris galaxy, there was no naturally occurring, edible plant that was healthier for Lombaxes, or as rich in vitamins, minerals, and protein than the Foedus bean. Unfortunately, however, this same bean was also considered one of the most disgusting foods to have ever been given the, apparently loose, definition of 'edible'.

The bean's shell was tough, like it was made of thin leather, its bulbous insides were filled with something that had the texture of pus mixed with lumps of gelatin, and to top it all off, there were tiny strands of fibers that grew throughout the bean which mimicked the feeling of short strands of hair.

Most of the galaxy, and Kaden in particular, hated these beans more than almost anything else in Polaris. He had even gone so far as to dedicate a class project to prove that the horrible taste and texture of the beans were, in fact, a potent defense mechanism designed to ward off herbivores.

Still reeling from the shock of the discovery, Kaden glanced over to Alister, who was now hungrily eyeing a steaming plate of meat heaped on top of meat drizzled with a meat-gravy (his favorite), and a small side of vegetables.

Forgetting the tense mood entirely, the white-furred Lombax looked up with a grin at Kaden. The moment he saw Kaden's meal, however, the look of joy changed to one of horror, then to pity.

Kaden turned to Sorana, who had already started to calmly eat her own meal of what looked to be an exotic fruit salad, and was ignoring him entirely.

_ 'She couldn't possibly expect me to eat this, right?' _  Kaden thought to himself desperately.

He spent the next several moments just waiting. For what, he didn't know, the joke to be over perhaps? But it quickly became clear that if there was a punchline here, it wouldn't be in the food.

Kaden began tapping the table nervously with his finger as he tried to decide what to do next. His only options were to run for his life or demand that he be given something else. Sorana was unlikely to allow either of those scenarios to play out well for him, but he was having a hard time figuring out what he feared more, the hairy, pus-filled beans or his childhood friend's fury.

Sorana suddenly stopped eating and Kaden immediately noticed her sudden cessation of movement in his peripheral. He then looked over to his oldest friend and noticed that her fork was raised halfway to her mouth.

Sorana sighed, though it almost sounded like a growl, and she lowered the utensil back down. With very deliberate motion, the white-furred female raised her head and locked eyes with Kaden.

Her stare went through him like a knife, cold and sharp. Kaden then knew at the moment exactly which of the two he feared most.

"Eat," Sorana ordered.

It had only been a single word, but it had spoken volumes, leaving no doubt in Kaden's mind as to his options. He then turned back to the beans on his plate and gulped fearfully. He felt his stomach churn the longer he looked down at the bowl in front of him.

Eventually, with a quivering hand, the tan-furred Lombax raised his utensil from the table and pierced one of the beans. A puff of air was released from the hole he'd made, which sounded unfortunately similar to a fart. This was followed swiftly by a small trickle of pus, which came oozing out once the air had fully drained.

Kaden closed his eyes and searched for a happy place in his mind before taking a deep breath and lifting the speared bean to his mouth. Hesitantly he opened his jaws and slowly moved the bean between them. With one last internal apology to his stomach and taste buds, while fighting the urge to both gag and cry at the same time, Kaden snapped his mouth shut and began to eat.

* * *

_ The two boys felt out of place in their casual clothes, but it was a different feeling from the 'out of place' way that the Art Field usually made them feel. Alister hadn't been told about the formal theme before he'd brought Kaden either. It was only when they'd had time to settle down did they notice Sorana's casual-fine attire and, though she looked good in it, they were both too afraid to comment on it. _

_ On the other hand, the silence was going on for far too long now. Sorana hadn't said a word since telling them to take a seat and had just been staring unblinkingly into her menu, which was made out of what appeared to be actual paper. The decadence was almost unnerving. _

Sorana wasn't actually reading the menu, though. Instead of trying to figure out what she wanted to eat, the enraged, white-furred Lombax was just trying to figure out how she came to find herself in this situation again. It was beginning to seem like every time that she saw Kaden, her head would suddenly fill itself with all the things that he'd done and cause rage to boil up through her like a volcano. This performance now seemed to be a repeating joke that she and Kaden shared, but neither laughed at or particularly enjoyed.

Sorana, however, had never really questioned the routine before now. But, the way her relationship with Kaden had been brought out in the open and reviewed over the past few days, like it was part of some obligatory backstory arc, made her realize just how extreme the contrast between the way she acted toward Kaden now was from when they were younger.

Sorana knew the ‘reason’ she always found herself reprimanding her old friend, but she couldn't figure out 'why' it bothered her so much now. Kaden certainly hadn't changed much in that time, not personality wise at least, but she had never been so critical of his actions back when they were kids. Sure, she didn't exactly approve of his misbehavior and frivolous actives, but they had always fascinated her far more than they'd angered her.

_ Swallowing hard to clear his surprisingly dry throat, Kaden attempted to break the silence, "So, uh, what are we eating?" he ventured cautiously. _

Sorana heard the question as if it had come from far away, but just the sound of Kaden's voice alone was enough to make her blood boil, "Eating?" she said, moving only her eyes upward to look at Kaden for fear that moving any other muscle would inflame her already powerful urge to reach across the table and do him bodily harm. "That's a good question," she continued darkly.

At the mention of food, Sorana's mind flashed with memories of finding out just how bad Kaden's diet actually was. For someone who was so intelligent, knowing the harm his eating habits were doing to his body seemed to do little in the way of fixing them. 

Rather than put in the effort to make traditional, 'good' food choices, the tan-furred Lombax would always try to genetically modify certain dishes so that they would both taste good and give him the nutrition a growing boy needed.

Of course these attempts failed… a lot. Sometimes he got away with only minor side effects, no worse than an upset stomach, while others had put him in the hospital, including one time that required him to have half of his small intestine regrown.

"What have you been eating since the tournament ended?" Sorana asked sternly, fearing what kind of new concoction her mad friend may have come up with now.

Kaden didn't answer, his only acknowledgment of the question being a stiffening of his facial features.

When her tan-furred friend continued to say nothing, however, Sorana felt mild relief. If Kaden had invented some new 'superfood' again, he'd be proudly detailing its design and toting its brilliance. In that familiar situation, Sorana would have likely found herself visiting the academy medical facilities later in the week.

As she continued to stare distractedly at Kaden, she began to wonder about this particular habit of hers as well. Kaden had never been a healthy eater, but just like with everything else he did, she'd never taken it upon herself to control his food consumption and she wondered when this had started as well.

_ "Are we ready to or-dér?" asked a serverbot in an odd accent, who had suddenly appeared at Sorana's side. _

Sorana had been slightly startled by the sudden interruption, but she couldn't allow it to show that on her face, so she just stared a few more seconds at Kaden before turning to address their server.

It was then that she realized she hadn't even read the menu she'd been staring at all this time. 

That didn't matter though; Sorana had already become acquainted with the chef who was in charge of this particular Art Field 'restaurant'. His name was Frédéric and he was… well, he was a pompous sort of guy. Completely full of himself and his craft, but he was actually rather easy to deal with once one figured out his quirks.

Like most skilled culinary students at Nova, Frédéric had a cuisine specialty and classic Markazian dishes were his passion. In truth, Frédéric's devotion to the culture was so strong that Sorana wouldn't be surprised if one day he tried to pay a Science Field student to experimentally rewrite his DNA so that he could become a Markazian.

Also like most culinary students, Frédéric refused to make anything except what he put on his menus and would allow for no alteration either. But, knowing his obsession with Markazian culture, Sorana had figured out that he would make her anything she wanted, so long as it was a Markazian dish. To add assurances, she would even give her order in an old Markazian language, which she had become fluent in at a very young age; Frédéric was unable to resist such a request.

"I-will-have-a-Truvarian-Fruit-Salad, _ " _  Sorana said to the robot waiter in Markazian. She then pointed to Alister,  _ " _ An-Agrolor-Platter-for-him, _ " _  she ordered next.

An Agrolor Platter was a very meat-heavy dish and she knew Alister would love that. Despite how angry she felt, she did need to thank him for bringing Kaden to her.

"And-a-Cup-of-Vrillo-Sprouts-on-the-side," she added, remembering that Agrolor was, in fact, nothing but meat.

Then the time came for Sorana to order for Kaden and here, she hesitated. She knew very well that Kaden's diet had and would likely be atrocious, regardless of what she tried to do. She had hoped that with the two of them now living at Nova together, she'd finally be able to clamp down on that bad habit of his, but, due to the sheer size of Nova and its separation of Fields, it actually made things harder than ever.

Knowing that Kaden had likely eaten nothing but junk food since he arrived at Nova, Sorana knew that she needed to make his meal of almost entirely vitamin-rich vegetables. However, the task of picking out a dish that was both nutritious and something that Kaden would eat willingly was a difficult one.

As Sorana sifted through the long list of Markazian dishes she knew of, in search of one with a good balance, however, she began to get angry again. 

In line with the recent scrutiny of her relationship with Kaden, she started to question 'why' she'd gotten to the point of picking out Kaden's meals like the mother of some fussy child.

With her own analogy of her actions raising her anger even further, Sorana spoke the final order, "Foedus-beans," she muttered.

The moment she'd said the words, Sorana instantly felt guilty. She knew that her anger was just as much towards herself for how stupid she felt for worrying over nothing and that she was just taking all of it out on Kaden.

"Will-that-be-all?" the waiter asked in Markazian.

But it was not enough to put out the burning fire of her anger, "Yes," she replied simply.

The serverbot then bowed obediently before leaving to process the order.

Once the server was gone, however, Sorana's focus immediately returned to Kaden. This time she folded her arms across her chest for effect and, for the next minute, the two simply stared at each other without saying a word.

_ "H-hey," poked Alister's voice cautiously, "everyone's wearing some pretty fancy clothing. What's the occasion?" he asked, nervously hoping to change the subject. _

Sorana turned her gaze toward Alister. She'd heard his question, but could not move her train of thought away from her anger at Kaden and soon turned back to him, "Didn't you know?" she replied with a sarcastic growl. "We're celebrating Kaden coming out of his hole and granting us all the honor of his presence. It's a special occasion since any other day he's too busy to 'even answer the communicator that's implanted into his skull'!"

_ Alister looked like he regretted asking his question. _

_ Sorana noticed his expression from her peripheral and sighed, before relaxing her gaze slightly, she wasn't upset with Alister after all, "There is no real 'occasion'," she explained with a tinge of sharpness still in her voice. "The themes of the eating halls are determined by the master chef in charge of them. I guess today Frédéric was in a formal mood." _

_ Not daring to speak again, Alister simply nodded his thanks for the answer. _

_ With nothing else to say, the veil of silence covered the table once more. Not even the sound of nearby diners seemed to be able to pierce it until, thankfully, a pair of server-bots arrived, carrying three large plates between them, each with a metal cover hiding what was on them.  _

_ The servers then placed the meals on the table in front of each of the three Lombaxes. _

_ In one swift motion, they removed all the covers simultaneously, "Bon appétite," one said in a synthetic voice. _

Sorana was still lost in her thoughts as she began eating absentmindedly from the plate of assorted fruits and nuts in front of her, all of which were imported from Markazia. Frédéric refused to prepare anything that wasn't actually grown or raised on Markazia for his Markazian dishes. He claimed it needed 'Markazian dirt and air', to grow right.

' _ Frédéric was almost as picky about vegetables as Kaden,' _  Sorana thought in a mildly humorous way. Once again, however, her thoughts quickly turned to anger as she realized there was no way Kaden was going to eat Foedus beans peacefully. The nervous tapping Sorana heard next reinforced this knowledge, making her stop with her next bite halfway up to her mouth.

Sorana then sighed angrily as she knew that she must play the next part correctly. She lowered the utensil back down and conjured up the most coldly enraged expression she could before throwing it full force at Kaden.

_ Her stare went through him like a knife, cold and sharp… _  just as she'd intended.

"Eat," she ordered.

The truth was, Sorana knew that she couldn't force Kaden to do something he didn't want to any more than the Praetorian Guard could! But, if she played her role just right, she could usually nip Kaden's fighting spirit in the bud, before it had a chance to grow.

To her amazement, and great relief, Kaden reluctantly speared a bean and began to eat.

Feeling exhausted once again, Sorana instead turned her mind back in on itself and began to search her memories for the time her and Kaden's relationship had turned into this.

Just as she'd seen in her recent dreams, and just as she'd told her friends earlier, Sorana's older memories were filled with a simple relationship between friends, sharing stories and chatting warmly. Sometimes Sorana would be upset by something Kaden had done, but never to the point of reprimanding him. Even when he'd changed her scores on the history test, despite feeling incredibly guilty, she had only politely asked that he not do so again.

Deciding, instead, to then try and work backwards through her memories this time, Sorana sifted through an aggravatingly long list of recent mishaps, but nothing seemed to be the 'beginning' of them.

Starting to feel frustrated again, Sorana hazarded a glance up at the source of her irritation. She then watched for a moment as the dumbest genius she'd ever known fought down mouthful after mouthful of what was likely the most hated food in existence.

She did feel a little guilty as she watched, though. Foedus beans truly were disgusting in every possible way, but she also knew that this was pretty much the only way she could ensure Kaden ate the necessary nutrition he needed at all. This thought brought to mind of the first time she'd taken control of her friend's eating habits.

Due to his parents' circumstances, Kaden had often grown up under loose supervision. It had been after Kaden fell ill with a cold (a sickness that was virtually unheard of in the modern day) that she learned of just how bad his eating habits actually were. She'd then taken it upon herself to 'correct them' to the best of her abilities.

Though she did this forcefully now, Sorana remembered her initial attempts at curbing Kaden's diet as being soft-handed and more coercive than chastising. This meant that whatever memory she was searching for had to have happened after that.

As Sorana continued to narrow down the window of time, it became increasingly clear where in her memories her thoughts were headed. The only memory she had left of real significance between then and now was one that she often tried hard to forget.

It was the time when she had shortly lost the one thing that she had prided herself in most… and where she almost lost Kaden as a friend altogether.

As much as it pained her, Sorana forced open the mental seal she'd placed on one of the worst times of her life…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foedus Beans - The word ‘foedus’ means ‘foul’ or disgusting in Latin when used as an adjective. Oddly, it also means ‘Alliance’, ‘pact’, or ‘treaty’ when used as a noun. I don’t know if that has a deeper meaning, but I like to think it does.


	5. A Discomforting Sound

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago-**

Sorana’s last class of the day had just let out and she had quickly gathered her things before heading toward the Principal Education facility’s music area.

Yesterday had been Sorana’s weekly lesson with her primary music instructor. During that lesson, the instructor had introduced her to a new, advanced strumming technique that she was eager to try. Sorana hadn’t mastered it yet, but she was still eager to show it to her friend Kaden. 

Kaden had been a remarkably fast learner and there weren’t many new things about the harmonixium that Sorana could teach him.

A warm feeling of pride pulsed through Sorana as she thought about her dear friend’s incredible progress, alongside a small feeling of self-satisfaction for having been the one instructing him.

As Sorana approached the familiar door to the music room she reached her hand out toward the control panel on reflex. With a small beep of acknowledgment, the pad activated the door and it opened silently, so as not to disturb anyone that might be inside.

The moment the air from within hit her, however, Sorana quickly took a step back while simultaneously grabbing her nose. The sudden odor that came from the room wasn’t particularly strong, but it was awful. It reminded her of rotten eggs, with a mild aftertaste of something burning.

After taking a moment to recover from the sudden olfactory assault, Sorana braced herself and pressed forward into the room. She immediately began to search for the odor’s source, but she had a good feeling that she knew what, or rather ‘who’, the likely culprit was.

As expected, she quickly spotted a familiar, tan-furred Lombax standing at the very top of a choir platform. The boy was standing in front of an open window with one arm hanging out of it. He was also bare-furred from the waist up.

“Kaden…” Sorana sighed, her voice completely unsurprised and slightly congested from holding her nose shut.

At the mention of his name, Kaden looked down from where he stood.

Recognizing his friend immediately, Kaden smiled casually and gave her a friendly wave with his free hand, “Hey, Sorana,” he said calmly.

“Why does it stink in here?” she immediately demanded through a sealed nasal.

When Kaden heard the question, his expression turned frustrated, “Still?” he lamented before pulling his arm in, bringing his missing shirt with it. “I’ve washed this thing in the bathroom like three times.”

“What happened to it?” Sorana asked, more curious than upset.

Kaden looked at the piece of cloth with a sour expression, “The Peacekeepers in District Nine sprayed me with some odor chemicals. Since they can never catch me, they probably figured they could tag me with the spray and track me by the smell. Unfortunately for them,” Kaden continued with a smirk, “they only got my shirt. It’s deep water pressure grade insulated, so none of the spray got on my fur. I was able to stuff it in my bag until I lost their pursuit.”

Sorana, with her hand still covering her nose, raised an eyebrow, “Why were you wearing a shirt like that?”

“Because it protects against electrical shocks,” Kaden explained casually. “Tail Power Tech ‘loves’ electricity-based defense systems for some reason.”

“Oh, then the burning smell was just you,” Sorana pointed out with a mocking smile as she noticed the singed patches of fur that dotted Kaden’s torso and arms. Kaden didn’t seem to find them humorous. “So why were you breaking into TPT again?” she pressed. “Are you still upset about them beating you in the science fair?”

Kaden’s face scrunched up defensively, “Ok, no... I already told you that they didn’t beat me… I was disqualified on a technicality.”

Sorana eyed Kaden with a skeptical look and a mocking smile, “Your experiment exploded in front of the judges and tore down an entire expo center wall,” she reminded him.

Kaden didn’t reply immediately, “Yes... but ‘before’ the explosion, my particles all ionized exactly like my theory said they would. How was I supposed to know that it was a ‘requirement’ for them to also be ‘stable’?” Kaden countered. “Anyway, this whole past week TPT has been bragging online about some new ‘super-efficient’ capacitor they’ve invented and I wanted to see it for myself.”

“And?” Sorana intoned curiously.

“Pfft, hardly,” Kaden laughed, as he rolled his eyes. “It was only 0.00003%. That may be pretty impressive for a school club, but it’s nowhere near military grade, or even top industrial grade for that matter. Maybe if it was, like, 0.000022%, then I’d be impressed.”

“I see,” replied Sorana with a nod. She didn’t really understand the specifics of what Kaden was talking about, but there was enough context for her to figure out the gist of it.

“So that’s what I did today,” Kaden continued, changing the subject, “what’s new with you?”

Sorana considered the question for a moment, then her eyes lit up as she remembered why she’d been so eager to come here, “Oh, you remember that weird, repeating, sharp note we heard on the demo disc and haven’t been able to figure out?” she asked, to which Kaden nodded his head. “Well, yesterday my instructor taught me how to do it!”

At this, Kaden’s eyes also lit up excitedly, “You mean you can play those notes now?” he asked.

Sorana seemed to deflate slightly, “Er… well, I do know 'how' to play them,” she answered vaguely.

Kaden smiled wide, “Well then, let’s get to it,” he said eagerly, before moving toward where the harmonixiums were stored.

Caught up in the excitement, Sorana turned too, letting go of her nose and forgetting why she’d put her hand there in the first place, “Ugh- wait!” she gagged, as she was forcefully reminded. “Before we do anything, you need to get rid of that.”

Kaden stopped and looked confused at first, then he looked down at the bundle of cloth in his hand, “Oh right. Sorry, I’ve gotten kind of used to it, but don’t worry, I’ve got someone on it already.”

Sorana was about to ask what he’d meant by that when the back door to music room slid open. What stood waiting on the other side, however, wasn’t a student or teacher. Instead, there was a short, round, cleaning robot that looked similar to a trash can with scrub brushes on its bottom. The stout machine trundled smoothly across the floor to where the two Lombaxes stood.

“Hello CLaRence,” greeted Kaden familiarly.

“Isn’t that a CLR unit?” Sorana asked, recognizing the robot’s model as a ‘Clothing, Linens, and Rugs’ cleaning robot.

Kaden shrugged indifferently, “CLR-3243 to be exact, but he prefers Clarence,” the tan Lombax explained, before turning back to the robot in question, “How’s work today Clarence?” he asked.

The robot stopped in front of Kaden and issued a long stream of sharp beeps.

Kaden listened intently to the sounds for a moment, then he pulled a face in disgust while still smiling, “It’s a good thing you can turn off your odor analyzers then, huh?” he joked, “I’ll never understand eating contests,” he added with a shake of his head. “What a waste of good food.”

Despite seeing it several times, Sorana had always been oddly put off by how Kaden live-translated robotic binary. The first time she’d witnessed it, he’d told her that he used his NID translator, but years later she found out that he had eventually gotten tired of taking the fifteen seconds to turn it off and on and just learned to hear it innately instead.

“Speaking of foul odors, Clarence,” Kaden said before holding up his shirt, “Do you think you could get the smell out of this for me?”

There was another short stream of beeps and a small compartment popped open from CLR-3243’s side. Kaden obediently stuffed his putrid shirt inside and after a few more seconds of processing, the cleaningbot let out some more beeps.

Kaden looked surprised by the answer, “Three days?” he balked in disbelief. 

The robot replied with more beeps.

At hearing this, Kaden sighed, “Well Clarence, you ‘are’ the expert.”

With one final stream of beeps, Clarence turned in place and began trundling back the way it had come.

“Oh, and before you go-” Kaden began to call after the retreating machine.

But, before he could finish, a tall fountain of mist shot out from the top of CLR-3243’s head. The mist rose high into the air and drifted down slowly, killing any lingering traces of foul odor and replacing it with a mildly fruity fragrance.

“Thanks,” Kaden finished with a wave as Clarence left the room and the door shut behind him.

“I really think you should try making friends with actual ‘people’ here at school and not just with the robotic staff,” said Sorana. She was quite sure that Kaden knew the names of more robots than he did that of his fellow students.

Kaden waved his hand dismissively, “Bah, ‘organic’ programming is too predictable,” he said in what Sorana assumed was a joke, but was only funny to him. “Well, the smell is gone,” he pressed, “let’s get to practicing.”

Sorana cleared her throat, “Ehem… forgetting something?” she asked with a gesture to Kaden’s still bare torso.

Kaden looked down at said torso and grinned, “Why, too much for you?” he asked with a sideways look.

Sorana just shook her head, “In so many ways, but that one,” she fired back.

Kaden’s smile didn’t dim, “Don’t worry about it, when I called Clarence I also asked Brad to pick up a spare from my locker.”

Sorana shrugged unhappily, “Alright,” she conceded before turning and making her way to where the harmonixiums were kept. Her concerns were really just about Kaden being spotted, half-naked, walking around their elite schooling area. So, as long as he was fully clothed before they left, it was fine.

The two then quickly crossed the room to the storage cabinets against the far wall. Their school was equipped with a supply of standard quality harmonixiums, which Kaden used to practice with, but Sorana had her own, higher-end instrument, which she kept stored here during the day as well.

After they each grabbed their devices from the cabinets, they set them down along with two chairs, making the two setups face each other. Sorana placed a small device on her harmonixium that then emitted a holographic image of music notes just under where her head would be. She also handed her spare emitter to Kaden, who set it up on his own harmonixium.

When everything was prepared, they then switched on their instruments and the familiar lines of tiny, metal beads rose up into the air on invisible magnetic strings.

The musical piece that she and Kaden had been working on recently was one intended to be played by two harmonixiums at once. 

Sorana’s instructors knew nothing about her side practices with Kaden, which made them all the more exciting to her. It made them ‘her’ pieces, that ‘she’ had chosen, and that ‘she’ got to teach.

The two harmonixium players for this piece were also divided into one of two roles, a prime player and a support player. Sorana, being the more skilled of the two, had decided, without discussion, to take on the much more difficult role of support.

This meant that she would have to follow Kaden’s notes precisely, which was an incredible feat for an instrument as unpredictable as the harmonixium. It was hard enough just to predict how one’s own notes would come out, let alone their partner’s as well.

The two of them had managed to master most of their parts according to their sheet music. The only problem they’d had so far was with one particular verse which used a strumming technique they had never seen or heard of before.

They had a demo tape as an example, but all they really knew was that it created a string of nearly identical notes much faster than should have been possible. 

Sorana had asked her instructors about it, but the older woman had refused to teach it to her at first, claiming she wasn’t ready for such advanced lessons yet.

The mystery notes had stumped the two young harmonixers ever since… until yesterday’s lesson, that is.

Begrudgingly, the instructor had finally broken down in the face of Sorana's excellent advancement and had shown it to her. Now the two of them could continue with their piece.

“You have to gather a small number of beads and hold them with just your closed knuckles,” Sorana tried to explain as she demonstrated to Kaden. “You have to do this while letting the rest of the strand go like you normally would.” 

The white-furred Lombax gently ran her fingers along the vertical stream of magnetic beads, catching a few between the creases of her knuckles while trying not to create large gaps in the overall chain that could easily destroy the delicate rhythm.

“You mean like this?” Kaden asked as he attempted to encode Sorana’s moves and instructions into his mind and muscles.

“No, no, no... you’re grabbing too many at once,” Sorana instructed as she watched Kaden's attempt. “You’re only supposed to grab two or three per knuckle over the course of several notes, then you have to release them individually.”

Kaden growled irritatedly to himself as he accidentally released two beads at once again.

As Sorana watched her friend struggle with his instrument, she couldn’t help but smile slightly. She knew very well how Kaden got when he couldn’t figure something out. When it came to the harmonixium at least, she was there to lend a hand and he was always so grateful for her help. She truly loved that feeling and she was sure that Kaden would hit a wall and come moping to her for help in a few minutes.

Just as she was about to begin practicing the full verse herself, however, Sorana heard a familiar clicking sound over Kaden's playing, coming from the ceiling. This was then followed by another familiar sight: a small fountain of sparks spraying down from a corner of the room.

A few moments later, a robotic spider moved its spindly legs down a metallic thread before hitting the ground and scuttling across the floor toward the two Lombaxes.

“Hello, Brad,” Sorana welcomed as the robotic spider reached her first.

Brad came to a halt at the mention of its name and bent its legs in what Sorana had learned was its attempt to mimic her bow of greeting. The sight reminded her of why the robot was here. Folded neatly and tied to Brad’s abdomen with metallic thread was a shirt of thick material.

“Kaden, Brad brought your shirt,” Sorana informed her friend.

But Kaden was far too engrossed in his work to give her much attention, “Yeah, just tell him to leave it,” he said dismissively.

Sorana made a face of mock indignation, but still smiled slightly as she knew this was just how Kaden was. 

She instead turned her attention back to Brad, “He’s really an ungrateful kind of guy, isn’t he,” she asked the robot rhetorically, but loud enough for Kaden to hear.

Brad simply looked up at her as it processed her words. Sorana smiled down at what was now a ‘little’ robot. 

Recently every time Sorana saw Brad, she inevitably began to marvel at how times have changed. The robotic spider had seemed so big and terrifying when she’d first seen him, but Brad had eventually grown on her. Though, her only options had been ‘get used to him’ or ‘eventually lose all of her fur from stress’, since Brad often showed up when she was around Kaden.

Sorana reached down and detached the shirt from Brad’s body for him, but before sending him off, she gently rubbed a patch of artificial hairs on his metal back. These hairs were pressure sensitive and were primarily used to measure wind speeds when B.R.A.D. units worked on the outside of the tall buildings of Valmecha, but Kaden had shown her that when they were brushed evenly and at a certain angle, it mimicked smooth and safe winds and induced good feelings in the small automatons.

Brad confirmed this as his legs bent, making his back curve pleasurably and his ocular receptors shifted from their usual red to a gentle green. Sorana figured this was the least she could offer to thank him for always doing Kaden’s bidding.

As she continued to pet him, however, a series of musical notes suddenly hit her ears and it made her hand freeze in place. The sounds had been an almost perfect replication of the notes on her demo tape; the notes that she was still incapable of making herself.

“Hmm,” Kaden intoned thoughtfully to himself, before restarting the verse from the beginning.

The little B.R.A.D. drone looked up curiously at Sorana, wondering why the petting had stopped. Its basic processors registered the deep look of surprise on her face. 

Sorana didn’t move a muscle as she now listened very carefully to Kaden’s playing.

As she was well aware, simply grabbing a number of beads to produce the repeating sound wasn’t too hard in of itself, but trying to collect the beads without disturbing notes that came before and after it took a great deal of skill.

Sorana’s instructor had shown her exactly where and when a bead could be stolen in-between notes of this specific piece… but Sorana hadn’t shown them to Kaden yet. Just as her instructor had done for her, she had been waiting to feed him the answers a little at a time, allowing him to focus on the technique itself rather than the tricks to doing this specific set.

Sorana strained her ears, listening intently for the subtle changes of rhythm that meant a strum had been completed without a bead that it should have had. She noted a barely audible drop in pitch at every single one of the twelve notes her instructor had shown her.

Sorana continued to stare unblinkingly at Brad while seeing nothing from her eyes. After every new note Kaden played, Brad registered her muscles getting tenser until a series of twelve, identical sounds made her jaw drop.

Very carefully, Sorana put Brad down and watched the little robot scurry off. She then slowly turned around to face Kaden.

The tan-furred Lombax was smiling proudly to himself as he flexed his now tender knuckles and looked over the sheet music to ensure he’d done the verse correctly.

“What was that?” Sorana questioned in an unusually high pitched tone.

Kaden looked up at her, then back down to double check his music sheet one last time, “I think I got it,” he answered, nodding his head as he mentally matched up his tones with that of the sheet music and smiling in self-satisfaction when he was sure.

Sorana didn’t react at first, she simply stared at Kaden. 

“Play it again,” she eventually commanded in a surprisingly stern tone. 

Kaden raised an eyebrow at her, but then turned obediently back to his instrument and played the verse again.

Sorana watched in stunned disbelief as Kaden strummed through various notes, grabbing beads here and there without losing the ones he already had. His playing wasn’t as crisp and error-free as his last attempt, but that hardly mattered considering how far he’d gotten in a mere hour or so.

With the same twelve unbelievable notes, Kaden finished the verse again. He was a little unhappy at the sloppiness this time around, but he still seemed pleased with it overall.

“Play it again,” Sorana repeated once more.

This time Kaden looked up her and furrowed his brow in confusion at his friend. Her expression seemed oddly intense. He licked his lips, feeling he should say something, but no words came to mind.

Shrugging to himself, he simply did as he was told and played again… and again... and again.

Sorana had made him repeat the verse a total of five times before she was satisfied, though she didn’t look it.

Kaden was worried at first. He really didn’t know how to handle this awkward situation. He’d never seen Sorana act like this before. 

It wasn’t like she was angry or sad or anything like that, she just seemed… blank. Almost like her mind couldn’t decide what to feel.

“That was great, Kaden!” Sorana suddenly declared excitedly. She smiled at him and beamed proudly, “I’ve only just shown the technique to you and you’re already able to play it so well.”

Kaden was almost knocked back by the sudden shift in atmosphere. He blinked a few times in confusion and wondered briefly if he’d imagined the previous few minutes.

Luckily, the powerful force of denial kicked in and Kaden matched his friend’s grin, “Thanks,” he replied, almost slightly embarrassed by the praise. “So do you want to try playing the verse with both harmonixiums now?” he asked eagerly.

It was only for a moment, but Kaden felt a slight hesitation in Sorana, like her whole body had stiffened in an instant.

But the thought was swept away when she replied, “Sure! Do you want to start from the top, or just practice this verse?” she asked with the same encouraging smile that she always wore.

Kaden thought for a bit, “Let's take it from the top,” he decided boldly. Both of them had long mastered the prime player's role, so he thought that, since they could 'both' now play the one part in the 'support' role, that they were ready to do the whole thing.

Sorana considered her friend's answer for a bit before saying, “Alright,” and turning back to her own harmonixium.

Eagerly, Kaden swiped his holo-sheets back to the beginning of the song and lined up his fingers on his instrument’s metallic strands.

Just opposite him, Sorana mirrored his movements and she looked up at him when she was ready, as it was the prime player's job to start.

With one last smile, Kaden turned his head down to his music sheet and began to play.

However, not three notes into the opening Sorana shouted, “Oh no!”

Kaden immediately let go of his instrument’s strands and looked up in concern, “What is it?” he asked.

Sorana wasn't in any kind of visible trouble, though, “Look at the time,” she said with a sad smile that clearly showed her deep disappointment.

Kaden did as he was instructed and looked at the chronometer in his NID, “Oh,” he said as he recognized that they were almost at the end of their usual practice schedule.

“We'll have to finish the song next time,” Sorana voiced disappointedly.

“Can't we give it a shot anyway,” Kaden pleaded, his mind already in play mode. “It will only take a few more minutes.”

But Sorana shook her head, “Sorry Kaden, but Cam is coming to pick me up today and you know how she gets when I'm not there on time.”

Kaden sighed, “Fine.” He knew that Sorana was right and that her overprotective robo-maid would blow a circuit if she found Sorana late to meet her because she was with him.

The two Lombaxes began to power down their instruments and pack up, “Do you want me to lock up your harmonixium for you?” Kaden offered as he returned her holo-projector, wanting to help his friend make her appointment.

Sorana smiled gratefully, but shook her head, “No thank you, Kaden. I think I'll take it home with me tonight. My instructor gave me a bit of homework to practice as well.”

“Alrighty then,” grinned the tan-furred Lombax as Sorana got up to leave.

Sorana gave her friend a short bow of farewell before walking toward the entrance. She stopped just before leaving to glance back at Kaden, who noticed her looking and waved goodbye one last time.

Sorana then left the music room, walked calmly through several halls, and came out into the wide, open space of the parking garage for their building level.

Waiting for her there, a worried color in her ocular sensors, was Cam.

Sorana greeted her maid and entered the nearby vehicle after the door was opened for her.

On the way back home, through the buzzing skyways, Cam asked Sorana how her day had been.

“Good,” was how Sorana replied. “Nothing particularly special about it.”

When the two of them arrived back at Sorana's home, Cam informed her that her parents weren't yet in, but that dinner had been prepared.

Sorana thanked her servant and asked her to move the harmonixium she'd brought up to her room. 

Sorana then proceeded to the dining hall, where she quickly ate her meal and informed Cam and the other robotic staff that she would be retiring early for the night.

Cam followed Sorana as she quickly washed up in the bathroom, before going to her room. Here, Sorana wished her servantbot a good recharging-cycle and shut the door to her room.

After she had shut the door, she sat on her bed and waited a few minutes. Once she was sure that anyone nearby had left, she got back up and retrieved her harmonixium from the corner where Cam had left it.

She then set the instrument up next to her custom-made playing chair. This playing chair was unique in the fact that an occupant did not sit on the chair themselves; rather, anti-grav technology held them aloft at a preset height. The comfort level was literally like floating on air.

Once Sorana had set up her hologram generator, she quickly flipped it over to the part where the new strumming technique was used.

Once the device was activated, she waited patiently for the beads to line up and become still.

Once she was all set, she then reached forward, positioned her fingers appropriately, and began to practice.

Sorana practiced deep into the night, playing this one section over and over again. At midnight, she was forced to pause for a few minutes to pretend like she was sleeping as a servantbot came by to check on her.

The second the bot was gone, however, she was out of her bed and right back in her player’s chair, strumming away at her harmonixium.

* * *

Sorana shut her eyes as beams of sunlight suddenly shone through her window.

Blinking through the light, the white-furred Lombax looked up from her harmonixium and was astounded to find that it was already morning.

She pursed her lips unhappily, this meant that one of her servants would be intruding soon to wake her up for breakfast.

On the plus side, though, she was feeling much more confident about her playing. She could now execute the musical set without any mistakes seven out of ten times. Nowhere near what she would have liked, but progress nonetheless.

_ ‘Besides,’ _ she thought, as she looked down at her worn hands,  _ ‘now is probably a good time to stop.’ _ The blood from her fingers was now starting to trickle out too quickly for her to wipe off in-between sets. It would also do her no good if her servants found any stains on her furniture or her clothes.

So, with a sigh, while silently cursing her short-sightedness in having not smuggled some more topical Nanotech into her room, Sorana decided to end it here… after just ‘one’ more set.


	6. Uncrossed Paths

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago-**

Despite how strenuous her efforts had been, Sorana's intense practice had proven to be effective. By the time she next met with Kaden, she had managed to perfect her finger movements and use the new technique masterfully.

The two friends met at their usual time after school and continued right where they had left off. 

Kaden, who was completely unaware of Sorana’s recent efforts to improve herself, eagerly took his position on a harmonixium beside her and began to play the primary part of their duet.

Sorana, having no intention of letting anyone find out how much she had struggled to learn the upcoming verse, simply smiled encouragingly and joined in time with her support parts.

Together the two played perfectly in sync, as they had done for many weeks past, up until the final verse. 

Kaden picked up the pace of his playing as the finale came closer. 

Faster and faster he played, not missing a single note, with Sorana in perfect step behind him.

The tan Lombax’s playing crescendoed to the loudest he could make it… then he stopped.

In the silence that followed, like the first raindrops of a storm hitting the ground on a silent night, twelve perfectly spaced chimes rang out.

When the final drop had struck, Kaden started to play again, soft and slow. Then Sorana joined in once more and the two of them finished their song in perfect harmony.

As the echoes of the final notes died away, the friends looked up from their instruments at each other, Kaden wearing a wide grin of satisfaction and Sorana a modest smile of acknowledgment. Sorana then nodded her approval to her ‘student’.

Without a word, the two stood and approached each other before shaking hands, mimicking the actions of professional harmonixers who had just finished a concert.

“Well, Kaden,” Sorana began calmly, “we’ve completed the piece without a single mistake. What do you want to do now?”

Kaden thought for a bit. It was an odd feeling that he had. The two of them had been working towards this milestone for so long, yet they had only been held up by a single missing piece of the puzzle. He had already gotten over the sense of accomplishment for having mastered ninety-nine percent of the duet already, so he didn’t really feel like celebrating.

But there was something else he wanted to do, “Want to trade places?” he asked with a smile.

Sorana simply smiled back and nodded and the two returned to their harmonixiums and played the duet again, this time with Sorana as the lead and Kaden as the support.

For the next hour or so, the two friends played the musical piece, trying different versions and at different speeds just for the fun of it. Kaden had trouble following along as the support, but, with Sorana’s help, he managed to get through a full rendition without issue.

When the two of them had finally gotten their fill of harmonixium music, Kaden snuck them both out past the school’s security systems and they both enjoyed ice cream at their favorite under-district sweets store.

To any outside observer, and indeed, even to the two friends themselves, everything seemed to be perfectly in order.

The first signs of trouble wouldn’t come until much later.

* * *

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Tier Eight Adolescent Musical Education Facility, “Harmony Hall”-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 0)-**

It had been several days since she’d finished her duet with Kaden and Sorana was once again practicing her Harmonixium. However, she knew the piece she was currently playing so well that her mind began to wander as her hands continued to play through with just muscle memory. 

As they wandered, Sorana’s thoughts inevitably ended up back where they had been stuck for the past few days, on Kaden’s progress with the harmonixium.

Had the student surpassed the master?

Whereas in the past Sorana had been able to ignore the question completely, now that it had crossed her mind and taken root, she could no longer deny that the difference between her and Kaden’s skill was virtually indistinguishable.

Deep in her heart Sorana knew she was better; she had to be, considering how many advantages she’d had over him. Everything, from the young age at which she’d started playing to elite instructors that oversaw her progress, there was no way she could lose to her ‘student’.

But ever since that absolute truth had been shaken, she could no longer be sure. She needed to find a way to prove it.

She pondered what this way could possibly be throughout the majority of the musical piece she was playing and was no closer to an answer even as she casually played its finale, which included the new technique that she’d just recently mastered.

…

“Ztupendous!” exclaimed Sorana's instructor as she finished. “It vuz done perfictly, und zo zoon after learning it! I muzt zay, Zorana, jou zertainly maztered thiz zkill far faster zan anyone I av ever taught!”

Sorana simply bowed her head respectfully, “Thank you, Miss Arvien. It was all thanks to your teaching,” she said mechanically.

It was very rare for Sorana's hardened instructor to be impressed by anything, let alone one’s skill with a harmonixium. Anyone who knew her would be stunned to hear such praise spoken in her heavy accent.

To Sorana, however, the praise was washed out of her mind almost as soon as she'd heard it. She made sure not to let it show on her face, but all she could think of was that, no matter how well she had done, Kaden had done so sooner and without anywhere near as much practice time or help from the famous instructors that she'd had.

Still, Miss Arvien nodded approvingly at her student's facade of humble gratitude, before reaching toward her bag, “It zeems I vuz wrong about jou being unready for zis lesson… so, perhaps jou are ready for ze next vun as vell.”

At those words, Sorana suddenly became interested again. She looked up at her instructor and curiously waited for Miss Arvien to retrieve whatever she was looking for.

“Ah! Eer it iz,” the instructor declared as she removed a small device that looked similar to Sorana's music sheet projectors. The older woman smiled knowingly and handed it to her student.

Sorana took the object, before turning it over in her hand, “What is it?” she asked after a moment.

“It may look like jour regular projector, jes? No, it iz, in fact, ze opposite,” the instructor explained. “Thiz devize... vill record jour playing, even tranzlating ze zounds into music shitz.”

Sorana blinked a few times in confusion, she was so intrigued by what was being said that she didn't even take note of the usually hilarious way her instructor said 'sheets'.

“Record?” Sorana repeated questioningly, unsure of why she would need such a device.

Miss Arvian nodded excitedly, “Jess! Viz thiz devize, jou vill compose jour very own zong!”

Realization slowly dawned on Sorana as she rolled her instructor's words over in her head and the sudden weight of what she was being told began to take hold. 

Creating one's own harmonixium song was said to be the ultimate test of every amateur harmonixer. When playing a harmonixium piece made by another composer, the player essentially had to adapt the musical sound to their own play style, as everything from finger size to an aggressive personality could affect the sensitive metal beads' movements.

When making one's own composition, however, there are no such restrictions and the composer is free to search the infinite sequences of the harmonixium for the notes that best fit 'their own' style.

More importantly, it required immense skill and understanding of the harmonixium’s subtle touches to find such a sequence. There were far too many possible sequences in the instrument's hundreds of free-floating beads to make a song by randomly pulling on strands. It’s even been rumored that the Iris Supercomputer was once tasked with making a harmonixium song and the end result only received four out of five stars by critical review.

But, what stood out at the top of Sorana's mind as she thought about her new assignment, was not what this meant for herself. Instead, she saw this next challenge as the key to answering the questions that had been plaguing her... She would use this task to prove once and for all the difference between her and ‘her student’.

With her mind filled with these thoughts, Sorana barely heard her instructor's ominous following words, “Zis vill be ze beginning uv ze end for jour time as a harmonixium 'zudent'!”

* * *

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 1)-**

Sorana enacted her plan at the very next harmonixium session she and Kaden had set together.

As she was the 'teacher', Sorana had always decided what the next 'challenge' would be for Kaden to strive for. It was only recently that she had needed to share those goals with him.

Kaden was eager, as always, upon hearing their next ‘mission’, and the two immediately set about brainstorming ideas. They discussed things like parts of various songs that they’d both learned and how some parts might sound better if played together or in different pitches and keys. 

The two Lombaxes became so involved in their discussions that Sorana had almost completely forgotten about her worries concerning Kaden for the first time in nearly a week.

“You remember how to do that one strumming method?” the tan Lombax asked offhandedly as he poured over his digi-pad and the musical notes displayed on it.

“Hmm, which one?” replied Sorana, equally offhandedly, as she too kept her face glued to her own digi-pad.

“The one from Brasovius’s Sixth Sequence?” Kaden explained further. “The weird one he did.”

Sorana thought for a minute. Brasovius was fairly famous for his ‘unique’ style, but not so much for any specific strumming techniques. It took her a moment, but eventually, she realized that Kaden was talking about Brasovius’s ‘Eighth’ Sequence, not his sixth.

And, just like that, Sorana was thrust right back into her world of insecurity. While the question itself was simple enough, the issue behind it was that it was ‘Kaden’ who was asking it. 

Kaden rarely forgot anything, no matter how much he, or her for that matter, wanted him too. Even when it seemed like he wasn’t really paying attention to something she was saying, he was always able to later bring up even the most briefly mentioned and minute details of embarrassing anecdotes that she’d let slip during their time together.

From offhand remarks to advanced physics to mundane talks about their day, Kaden almost never asked the same question twice and Sorana clearly remembered that they’d gone over Brasovius’s Eighth together already.

The likelihood that she was overthinking the matter was great, but still,  _ 'What if Kaden was only asking such questions to test me?' _ asked a small part of Sorana’s mind.  _ ‘What if he’d noticed the same thing I had and now he wanted to humiliate me for it?!’ _

To Sorana, the thought was so full of paranoia and worry that it felt almost foreign to her, as if the idea had come from someone else entirely. But it did, unfortunately, have merit. Kaden had told her about how many times in the past he'd done such a thing during classes, just to embarrass teachers he didn't like. Often he’d asked difficult or impossible questions and, if they pretended to know the answer, he would call them out.

But, before the thought could take further root in Sorana’s mind, “The one where you squeeze the bottom of two strands together?” she asked, using the action of answering the question to push aside her far-reaching thoughts. “Where you play the two strands like one? The one where all that bumping makes each note sound like a nail file on your ears?”

Kaden grinned maliciously to himself, “Yeah it does!” he said.

Sorana now saw what Kaden was going for and smiled back at him, “Oh, you definitely ‘don’t’ want to put ‘that’ technique into your music. Most experts agree that it’s the reason Brasovius never made a Ninth Sequence.”

Undeterred, Kaden jumped to his feet, “Don’t try to suppress my ‘art’!” he declared in dramatically mock defiance, before making a move towards his harmonixium.

Sorana shook her head and got up to show him how it was done. After seeing her friend excitedly preparing to play one of the worst musical chords she’d ever learned, all concern for his possible ulterior motives washed away. She even felt guilty for even thinking that Kaden would do such a thing to her.

“In all seriousness though,” Kaden called back from his seat next to his instrument, “if we make it three strands and mix it with Karvoldiivlch’s Cycle, the high notes might actually come out ok.”

Sorana froze in place and stared hard at the back of Kaden’s head,  _ ‘Who’s cycle?’ _

* * *

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 37)-**

“How was that?” Kaden asked as he finished the piece.

“Huh?” Sorana responded distractedly. “Oh... yes… yes, it was perfect, not a single note out of place,” she complimented earnestly.

“Well, then?” Kaden pressed.

“Well, what?” Sorana answered obliviously.

Kaden eyed his teacher expectantly, “Well… should I use the middle verse without the opening or not? I asked you if you thought it stood up enough on its own, or if I needed to make up something to introduce it.”

Sorana thought quietly to herself for a bit, but it was not about Kaden’s question. She was still mesmerized by the fact that he had just played an exceedingly difficult piece, cold-start, from its middle verse. This was exceptionally hard to do with a harmonixium, because a musician typically ‘needs’ to go through the previous verses to get the timing for all the moving parts of a harmonixium right. Finding a way to reach the same point without the beginning steps was like trying to build a house and starting with the roof.

What’s more, he had even completed the entire rest of the song, all just to show her a small portion of it that he may or may not use in his finished piece.

_ ‘He did it to show off,’ _ came an increasingly loud voice in the back of Sorana’s mind. And, as was happening more frequently, she did not outright dismiss the thought.

Searching for inspiration through other songs was a fairly typical thing for any composer and Kaden was no exception. Sorana had listened in awe as her 'student' ran through song after song with his fingers.

Up until the two of them had started working on their own songs,  Sorana had only been able to see Kaden's harmonixium playing through the eyes of an instructor, pushing him to improve and focusing on his mistakes in order to fix them. Whenever she had finally heard the finished product of those efforts, it had always come following a long series of mistaken finger placements, poor strand control, or missed timings.

H owever, over the past several weeks, Sorana had stood witness to dozens of musical renditions being played seamlessly by her ‘student’, one right after the other in an almost casual way. Even ‘she’ at least needed to re-familiarize herself with a musical work before she could get a feel for it again.

The tan Lombax, on the other hand, played them quickly, clearly, completely, and just… flawlessly. Rarely bothering to even wait for his sheet projector to upload and prepare the next song as he jumped from one to the next in search of musical inspiration.

They weren’t just simple songs either. Kaden played some of the most difficult songs Sorana had ever heard, ones which she ‘still’ sometimes struggled to play on her own, with almost as much ease and speed as he showed with the simple pieces.

It was somewhere along this timeline that the voice in Sorana’s head realized that there was no way Kaden hadn’t noticed this difference between them, it being so clear and glaring as it was, and she had come to the conclusion that he was now doing it more and more just to show off.

Questions from Kaden were also much less frequent now and the subtle paranoia Sorana had been experiencing about them had died down. However, this was only because it had been replaced by a much bigger fear... the one that had actually started all this.

“Well?” Kaden repeated, his impatience at still having not been answered reflected in his tone.

Once again Sorana realized that she hadn’t given Kaden’s question any thought. This realization then backed her into a corner, as she needed to say something now. Unfortunately, that feeling of desperation managed to meet the underlying frustration she was feeling.

“It’s fine,” she snapped back, more sharply than she’d meant to. “You can clearly play it just as well without the intro, so if you like it, then use it.”

Kaden was left speechless by her sudden response, though, he had wanted to ask something else.  It had been a small change at first, sometimes almost impossible to notice, but even Kaden was now starting to notice that the atmosphere between him and Sorana seemed to have grown heavier and more tense over the past few weeks.

Eventually, the tan-furred Lombax muttered a hushed, “Alright,” before turning back to his digi-pad and marking the song he’d just played for future review.

He didn’t ask any more questions that day.

* * *

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 68)-**

Sorana could now feel an intense, invisible pressure pressing down on her at all times. Worse, it seemed to grow ever larger with each passing session she had with Kaden.

She was already pouring all of her limited free time into developing her song, but try as she might, she couldn't get it to come out the way she wanted. Her teachers were a great help and they always complimented her progress, but every time she played back a recorded session, her notes always sounded too strained to her, even forced. To her, they sounded like... desperation.

“Why can’t I hear what you have so far?” Sorana demanded. 

Seemingly unable to improve her own song, Sorana instead turned more of her attention to Kaden's work.

“Because I haven’t made any changes since I played it last time,” Kaden insisted dismissively.

Conversely to Sorana, the young, tan-furred Lombax didn't seem to be putting a lot of effort into his project at all.

The last time Sorana had heard Kaden play his latest draft of his song was several days ago. The piece was mostly just a string of the best/hardest verses of many other songs, but it astounded Sorana to see how Kaden had been able to weave such contrasting styles of playing together so seamlessly. The song as a whole still needed a lot of work before it could be considered ‘his’, but when compared to Sorana’s depressing efforts, there was no contest.

“You're telling me that you haven’t changed anything?” the white-furred Lombax pressed insistently. 

As Sorana’s confidence in her ability to beat Kaden began to wane, she had begun comparing her efforts even more closely to his. She wanted to know every detail of what her student was doing. She told herself that her demands were only out of a desire to help him improve, but really she was just desperate to glean any detail of his progress that she could then use to compare with her own.

“Well…” Kaden began reluctantly. He then put down his digi-pad and turned to his harmonixium and started to play a section of music from an Orvangiot’s Sequence, “I was thinking of using this verse too, but maybe more… stiff and metallic,” he suggested vaguely.

_ ‘He’s being vague on purpose!’ _ declared the voice in Sorana’s mind.

Sorana was in total agreement. When they had first started making their drafts, Kaden had confidently shown all of his work to her, eager for her input. Now he only ever revealed his efforts after a great deal of coercion. 

Was he doing it because he realized that he was better than her and no longer needed her help, or could it be that he was hiding something?

This vagueness only fueled Sorana's fraying paranoia as her mind began to question more strongly as to whether her friend was actually doing it on purpose, so as to keep her in the dark of his plans.

“Fine then,” Sorana conceded unhappily, before returning to her digi-pad.

But Kaden wasn’t satisfied with that, “What about you, can I hear what you’ve got?” he questioned. Having looked back at their past few sessions, he had realized that he’d only heard Sorana’s song once, and even then it had been an extremely rough draft.

“M-my song?” Sorana repeated in surprise. “My, um… my song isn’t ready yet, so you’ll have to wait.” The white-furred Lombax was caught off guard by the request, but she knew she couldn’t let Kaden see how much better his piece was than hers. That would be the worst case scenario.

Kaden eyed her suspiciously, “But mine’s nowhere near done and I play my draft for you almost every time we meet up.”

Sorana thought hard to make up an excuse, then she straightened her back and made herself look authoritative, “That’s because I’m the teacher and you’re the student,” she stated firmly.

Kaden’s expression soured, but he did not respond and instead looked away. This set off alarms in Sorana’s head. Kaden didn’t respond directly and hadn’t gone back to looking at his digi-pad, he was just staring intensely into space. She knew that this meant he was thinking about something important and that had her worried.

_ ‘What was he thinking about?’ _ she wondered fearfully.  _ ‘Was he upset that I wouldn’t show him her progress, did he know where things stood and wanted to prove… what if he was questioning the very concept that ‘I’ should be the teacher at all?!’ _

The silence continued for a long while after that, with Sorana’s mind desperately trying to figure out what was going on in her friend’s head. 

The truth was, however, that Kaden’s mind wasn’t even on the Harmonixium at all. Instead, it was looping on an effort to figure out how to bring up a new subject. He had been working on a separate project recently, a fully functional combat mech that he’d been building out of spare parts from his favorite junkyard. But instead of talking about it right away, like he’d usually have done, the young Lombax had been holding his tongue for many days.

For the past few months, Kaden had been finding it more and more difficult to talk about things other than the Harmonixium with Sorana. He understood why, a harmonixer’s first original song was a huge moment for them, but he was starting to get a little bored of constantly working on it with her.

“Soooooo…” Kaden began experimentally.

“Hmm?” Sorana intoned back, pretending not to be analyzing his every word and tone.

Kaden was still unsure, but he wanted to talk about his mech so bad that he felt likely to burst, “So you know that junkyard I always go to, well I found a section that was full of old construction mech parts!” 

Kaden said the last part as if that information alone was enough to be excited about. It did make Sorana look up and show her attention, but not for the reason Kaden believed.

“And what about them?” she asked, with ‘extreme’ interest.

Mistaking the root of her interest to be in line with his, Kaden eagerly got down to details, “Well, I’ve been trying to repair a few of them and some are actually working pretty good. Still below factory quality, but functional at least.”

Sorana stared intensely at Kaden, “You’ve been fixing them?” she repeated in astonishment.

This attention only encouraged Kaden further, “Actually, I wanted to wait until I was finished, but… I managed to assemble enough working parts to make a full mech!” the Lombax exclaimed.

“What?” Sorana breathed in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Kaden continued excitedly, “I still need to work out some power supply issues, but when I fix that, it should be fully functional! I was thinking that after I got it working we could take it out to the thirteenth district and-”

“You’ve been building a construction mech out of spare parts?!” Sorana barked angrily.

Kaden looked back at Sorana in confusion. He wasn’t completely sure, but it ‘might’ be possible that he had been misreading the situation.

He opened his mouth to answer her, but Sorana continued before he could, “So, you’ve just been spending all your free time building more robots and ignoring your harmonixium piece?” she demanded sternly.

_ ‘This is bad, this is bad, this is bad,’ _ Sorana’s mind repeated in a panic. She’d always known that Kaden was able to achieve such great gains in his harmonixium playing with much less effort than she did, but if he wasn’t putting in ‘any’ effort, then that meant he likely knew how much better he was than her and didn’t believe he needed any effort.

“Um, no… not-not entirely,” Kaden stuttered back. “I’ve been working on the mech parts as kind of a side project for over a year. I’m still working on the harmonixium too.”

Sorana glared at Kaden, “Are you saying that you managed to get the thing assembled into one piece and on the verge of full operation ‘before’ we started making our own songs?”

Kaden looked away from Sorana’s eye, “Well… no, that was only recently.”

“Then are you saying you don’t care about your harmonixium playing anymore?” she then demanded angrily.

“No… not at all,” Kaden answered back defensively.

“Then, you should be focusing on your work, and not some robot project,” Sorana finished with a huff.

Kaden simply lowered his head and nodded his understanding, before turning back to his digi-pad.

Sorana allowed herself to calm down a bit and take in the situation. True, it was a bad sign if Kaden started focusing on other projects, but she had to be careful not to push too hard in the other direction either.

From her friend’s slumped posture and the way his ears bent gloomily down the side of his head, Sorana knew she was on the edge of going too far.

Sorana sighed “How about this,” she offered softly, “We have that holiday coming up, in ten days, right? School will be closed and we’ll both be free all day. How about we come in anyway and… I’ll play ‘my’ song for you? Then afterward, we can go check out your mech project, what do you think?”

Kaden immediately perked up, his excitement reflected in his ears, “Alright,” he agreed eagerly, before standing up and reaching out a hand, “It’s a deal.”

Sorana smiled comfortingly at her friend’s gesture and shook his hand with a nod of agreement.

They both then turned back to their digi-pads, though Sorana did so with a new determination.

_ ‘The stage was set,’ _ she thought darkly to herself. 

She could see the signs, she’d known Kaden too long to not recognize them. She now had exactly ten days to get her piece better than, or at least on par with, Kaden’s. If she couldn’t there would be only one ‘logical’ conclusion...

* * *

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 78)-**

As the sound of the notes gently faded away, Sorana let out a breath that she’d been holding for what seemed like months. Her mouth was dry, her fur tingled, and her fingers still trembled gently… but she was finally done.

With as much nerve as she could muster, the white-furred Lombax turned a carefully controlled expression towards the holographic image of Kaden, who was sitting on the other side of her room.

Sorana hadn’t managed to pluck up the courage to meet Kaden in person, so she’d managed to convince him of a family event that she couldn’t get away from. Still, as promised, she played her song for him.

“Well?” she asked nervously.

Kaden’s expression hadn’t changed. Even though it was made of pixelated photons, Sorana could see that he was thinking hard. His mind was still processing what he’d heard, turning over each note and vibration of the harmonixium in his head until it had been analyzed from every angle. 

It was likely he hadn’t even heard her question yet, as it too was waiting in line to be processed, so Sorana resigned herself and waited patiently; a soft, disarming smile formed on her lips. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Kaden spoke, “It was…” he began, but immediately trailed off as he searched for the words. His mind had decided his feelings on the subject, but translating them into the common galactic language was another task entirely.

“Was it... bad?” Sorana offered hesitantly. Her tone and demeanor revealed nothing of the sheer terror she had for what the answer might be, but she steeled herself for it.

“No!” Kaden exclaimed. “It wasn’t bad... It-it was good, it’s just… I don’t know how to say it.”

Kaden’s expression hardened again as his mind revved up for another analysis session, this time to figure out how to tell Sorana what his thoughts were.

But he didn’t get the chance.

“Well, it will have to wait until next time then,” Sorana announced suddenly before she got up from her seat and moved toward the holo-transmitter control. “I have to go meet my parents now, so I’ll see you later. And do try to have an answer for me by then, OK?

“Wha-” Kaden’s delayed reaction began. The tan Lombax’s hologram looked up just in time to see Sorana cut the connection.

With a flash of light, the holographic Kaden was gone and Sorana was left staring at her now bare and empty floor.

Then, all at once, Sorana turned and ran head first at her bed, shoving her face into her biggest pillow as she landed. Gripping it tightly in a huge bear hug, she rolled around her bed with it as she squealed her frustration into its soft surface.

The young Lombax was mainly just venting her pent up irritation at the seemingly agonizing pace with which her song had come along. She also growled her anger at Kaden for making his answer so vague and unfinished. But she mostly just berated herself for chickening out at the last moment and letting the anticipation get to her.

With one last heave, Sorana came to a halt on her bed, with her head hanging just off the side. She released the pillow, allowing it to fall lopsidedly from her face to the floor before throwing her arms at her sides and letting out a deep sigh.

Despite all her frustration, or perhaps because of it, Sorana also felt a great sense of relief at that moment. Her task was done. She had composed her song to the best of her knowledge and had played it to the best of her abilities. 

There was nothing left that could be done and now she only had to wait until the next time she saw Kaden for his final answer.

…

Sorana reached down and re-grasped her pillow before pulling it tight back to her chest and recommencing her rolling.

‘ _ Why does he have to overanalyze everything?! _ ’ her mind demanded angrily. ‘ _ Did you like it or not, just pick one! _ ’

The good news was, at least, that Kaden had said it wasn’t bad, even if it was said quickly and reflexively. Kaden wasn’t the kind of person who would be considerate of anyone’s feelings, so it was unlikely he was just trying to be nice. Sorana took solace in this fact and felt, for the first in a long time, that things were finally starting to look up.

* * *

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 79)-**

“What did you say?” Sorana breathed in disbelief, hoping she had just misheard.

Kaden fidgeted where he stood in the music room doorway, with his hand nervously scratching the back of his head and with his eyes looking anywhere but into Sorana’s, “Yeah, well… I was just wondering if it would be ok to miss this ‘one’ practice. I mean, we’ve kind of been pushing it lately with all these sessions.”

Sorana simply stared at her friend, unable to respond.

Uncomfortable with the silence, Kaden tried to push further, “Just for today that is. It’s the District Nine Peacekeepers’ yearly, system-wide firmware update and I had planned to get back at them for the stink spray they hit me with a while ago. I figured I’d do something like, maybe, have their cruiser sirens play farting noises instead of their usual wail. It shouldn’t cause any harm though, everyone gets NID messages whenever there’s a problem in their area anyway.”

But Sorana had stopped listening to what Kaden was saying after the first sentence. It wasn’t so much ‘what’ Kaden was asking that upset her either, it was ‘how’ he was asking it. 

The two of them had been doing these practices together ever since they’d met and there have been several interruptions over those years. Whenever Kaden couldn’t make a session, he’d just send her a message that he couldn’t make it. Other times Kaden would simply not show up at all. This usually meant he got caught up in something unexpected, usually some kind of trouble, and simply forgot. 

But Kaden had never once apologetically asked her for ‘permission’ beforehand. He barely even apologized for anything after the fact. This was how Sorana knew something wasn’t right. She knew that he clearly just didn’t want to practice with her anymore, which meant her song yesterday had made Kaden conclude he’d surpassed her and that he’d lost interest... that was the only explanation she could think of.

“Hey, you listening?” asked Kaden when Sorana still didn't respond. “I-I could still practice, like on my own later… if you wanted me too.”

Outwardly, Sorana was her usual picture of calm and poise, but inside her mind roiled. All of her fears were coming to a head right at this moment and she needed to do something to stop it or else she was going to lose Kaden forever, she just knew it.

First, she wondered if she could use his sense of pride against him. Maybe she could trick him into thinking that she hadn’t given it her all yesterday and that he was jumping the gun by concluding he’d surpassed her.

But, that would just delay the inevitable. Kaden would be suspicious of her claim and demand to see her best hand. And, if she didn’t deliver, he might even be disgusted with her.

Maybe she could come straight out with it? She could directly beg Kaden not to walk away and promise him that she would improve. Maybe she could even let them switch roles, let Kaden be the teacher and her the student. After all, she had unexpectedly enjoyed teaching him so much herself, maybe it would be the same for him too?

But she knew right away this wouldn’t work. She knew, after all these years together, that Kaden’s mind only worked in one direction. If he didn’t have a goal to achieve, he would lose interest immediately.

_ ‘This isn’t right!’ _ her mind screamed in frustration. Sorana had taught and practiced with Kaden for years. They had accomplished so much together. She didn’t want to accept that he could just get bored one day and decide to throw all of that away, like some child tossing aside an old toy.

This thought made the usually mild-mannered Sorana angry. Angry at herself, angry at her situation, but mostly angry at Kaden. She felt a strong urge well up inside her to just let her feelings burst forth and give her ‘friend’ a piece of her mind!

“O-oh… that’s fine,” Sorana said suddenly, a little louder and sharper than usual, but ultimately without any real noticeable departure from her usual tone. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the Sorana that had been ready for a fight was taken by surprise as she said these words. Unsure of what to do, her mind had reacted in the way she’d been taught her whole life… diplomatically.

“Sorana?” Kaden began hesitantly. Despite his oblivious nature, he still got the slight feeling that something was off. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was just a feeling he had.

“That’s completely fine,” Sorana reassured him. A familiar smile then came to her lips, but with an imperceivable tremble to it, “In fact, that’s a great idea! I guess we have kind of been ‘pushing it’ a little lately, a break would be nice.”

Kaden’s eyes lit up and his ears perked, it was a welcome relief to find Sorana open to his request, “So it’s alright if I play hooky today?” he asked in slight disbelief. Sorana had always been rather strict about their practice schedule, especially recently.

Sorana nodded her head in confirmation and even managed to manufacture a friendly laugh, “It’s alright with me, not a problem at all. In fact… I have to prepare for my rehearsal at the end of the month, so this whole week I should be working on that.”

Kaden clapped his hands together happily, “That’s great!” he declared excitedly. “Then I’ll see you next week?”

The words shot through Sorana like an arrow. She had only vaguely suggested missing the whole week of practice and Kaden hadn’t even hesitated before taking the bait.

This was all the evidence she needed to know that he’d been thinking of how to get out of practice before now and it was likely that he was already thinking of how he could get out of them completely.

In a life filled with fake smiles, Sorana put on what felt like her most artificial smile to date and bowed cheerfully to Kaden, “See you next week, Kaden. Try not to get in trouble until then,” she added, like she ‘normally’ would have.

Kaden grinned and simply nodded back, “See you then,” he said, before turning and disappearing back out the doorway.

Sorana watched the door as it slid shut automatically and continued to stare at it’s sealed threshold for well over a minute.

Not only did she not move a muscle, but barely a thought had even fired through her synapses. It was as if Sorana’s mind had just frozen, waiting for something to happen, something like Kaden bursting back through the door to tell her it had all been a joke, or that he’d changed his mind... because as things stood now, Sorana’s mind simply couldn’t accept it.

Eventually, though, time took its toll, and the young Lombax was gradually forced to accept reality as the cogs of her mind slowly ground back into life. 

_ ‘Well... I knew that was going to happen... eventually,’  _ Sorana tried to tell herself. Turning stiffly on one heel, she began making her way back toward her instrument with carefully measured steps.  _ ‘Once Kaden mastered something, he leaves it behind.’ _

Sorana had seen it many times before. She knew that her ‘friend’ easily accomplished almost any goal he set out for and that no one could match his skill for very long.

Sorana hesitated just before she reached her harmonixium and stared blankly at the instrument for a moment. She couldn’t do anything about Kaden now, but she had come here to practice, after all. Maybe she could forget if she just focused on her own thing.

Shaking unnecessary thoughts from her mind, the young, white-furred Lombax sat down at the harmonixium’s seat, before reaching forward and putting her hands in their starting positions of the device. 

As she had done thousands upon thousands of times in the past, Sorana hooked a strand of metallic beads with her finger and pulled it back. She then let go, and a sound she’d heard thousands upon thousands of times before, rang out.

Sorana continued like this, one pluck after another, going slowly at first, but gaining speed until she found a rhythm she could fall into. 

Despite what she told herself, however, her mind soon began to wander again and a strange sense of surrealism washed over her.

With her own playing as the backdrop of her thoughts, Sorana began to see things with new clarity. The real reason she had been so terrified that Kaden was surpassing her was not because he’d lose interest in the instrument, but because he’d lose interest in her. 

Sorana had known that the tan Lombax’s interests and hobbies never lasted very long, whether he wanted them to or not. 

It had been fascinating to see. Every new height Kaden ever reached for was always accomplished impressively and swiftly, before immediately being swept aside and replaced by another.

From the robots he built or repaired, to the complex computational codes he wrote that were borderline infringing on the Artificial Intelligence Registration and Rights Act, Kaden seemed to forget one project the second another came along.

There had been some ‘weird’ moments, too. Incidents that she wouldn’t exactly consider ‘succeeding’, but they all ended the same way. 

Like the time an even younger Kaden had hacked into the Crimson Commander corporate servers. At the time he had been intelligent enough to break through layer after layer of complex digital security and yet not emotionally mature enough to handle finding out that his childhood hero was a fictional character. Sorana had never seen Kaden so depressed.

And she couldn’t even count the number of times she’d heard her young friend go on and on about a set of intricate plans and ideas with excited detail, only to find out he’d moved on from them just days later without ever implementing them.

Kaden did this with friends too. He’d had several other companions throughout the time Sorana had known him. Though, he didn’t have any of them now.

Sorana was reminded of how Kaden had recently spoken of a new friend he’d met while he was with his father off-planet, a son of the Azimuth family, if she chose to believe the story. 

And, similar to everything else that Kaden ever spoke about, his interest in this ‘Alister’ kid was clearly born from the challenge they represented; from his desire to beat them at Hoverboot racing.

A part of Sorana’s mind briefly wondered how long it would be before Kaden lost interest in him too, and a strange tightness formed in her chest.

A sharp screech broke through Sorana’s train of thought. She had accidentally played a note too harshly, though it had surprised her as she’d almost completely forgotten that she’d still been playing.

The young musician shook her head yet again as her point was proven to her. Her wandering thoughts on Kaden were already starting to disrupt the one thing she had left now. She silently chided herself for losing focus. 

After all, she should have been ready for this... Kaden didn’t have friends, he had obstacles, and now... she was just one more in a long line that he’d gotten over. 

Therefore, she just needed to get over him.

Sorana’s ears stood straight up as the sound of a door swooshing open hit them. The young Lombax spun in her seat and looked eagerly toward the door, but felt her heart sink as she recognized the metallic form of her robotic servant, Cam.

Her sudden reaction elicited another self-rebuke,  _ ‘Who was she expecting?’ _ she demanded of herself.

It was then, several seconds after this thought, that Sorana realized what Cam’s presence meant. She immediately turned around to look at the chronometer on the far wall and, to her amazement, she found that Cam was right on time to pick her up and that she had been sitting here playing for hours.

It had felt to her like only minutes had passed.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Miss Bellit,” said Cam apologetically, seeing that Sorana was still in the middle of practice, “but it really is time that we be going.”

Sorana turned to reply, “Tha-s… -lright,” she tried to say, but, to her surprise, she found that her mouth had gone completely dry.

“Excuse me? What was-” Cam began, but stopped the moment her ocular sensors adjusted to the light and focused on Sorana, “Miss Bellit!” Cam exclaimed, “What happened to your face?!”

Sorana squinted in confusion at her caretaker, but was yet again surprised when her vision blurred from the action. She then quickly reached up to rub her eye, touching her cheek as she did so, and immediately felt the moist, matted fur that covered the area under it. 

_ ‘Had she been crying?!’ _ her mind questioned in both sudden realization and disbelief.

But before she could question further, Cam was at her side, “Are you hurt?! Are you injured anywhere?!” the concerned robot asked in horror, scanning over her master for injury, but detecting no signs of physical trauma anywhere.

Sorana tried to say something, but with her fingers still on her cheeks, she felt a sudden rush of liquid pour anew down her face. The young Lombax tried desperately to rub away the stream of moisture, but any effort she made was immediately washed over by the next wave of tears that were now flowing freely against her will.

Finding nothing with her scanners, Cam looked straight into Sorana’s eyes with her own eye-plates which glowed blue with concern, “Please… what’s wrong?” she asked fearfully.

_ ‘Say something!’ _ Sorana shouted at herself. She needed to say something, anything, to calm Cam down. She knew that her faithful servant would directly report any issue that was witnessed to her parents and this was the last thing Sorana wanted them knowing about.

Sorana opened her mouth to speak, but what finally came out was hoarse and cracked, and not what she meant to say, “I-it’s not fair...”

Sorana’s conscious mind then felt the last of its control evaporate as the young girl reflexively wrapped her arms around her maid’s metallic waist and buried her face into the cloth covered chassis. “I… tried ‘so’ hard.”

Cam, her processors overloaded with panic and with no guiding protocol to follow, simply wrapped her own, metal arms around her mistress and held her tight.


	7. Purpose

**-Planet: Fastoon-**

**-Valmecha City, 10th District-**

**-Advanced Principal Education Facility-**

**-A Few Years Ago (Day 86)-**

“C-class dismissed,” announced Mr. Tukson, the class's instructor. 

A moment later the room was filled with the familiar sound of screeching chairs and rustling bags as the students all prepared to leave.

Unlike her eager classmates, Sorana was in no rush to be anywhere. She eyed the empty desk that sat next to her and sighed reflexively. Kaden’s seat had been empty for over a week, ever since ‘that’ day in the music room.

Just remembering the dreaded evening still brought an audible groan to Sorana’s throat. It had taken almost ten minutes for her to calm herself down after Cam had shown up. It had ‘then’ taken her almost an hour to calm Cam down.

Sorana’s faithful robot steward had been so panicked from the ordeal that Sorana needed to continue holding her metallic waist long after she had stopped sobbing, just to keep the robotic maid from running to the nearest connection point to contact her parents. She had been saved by her school’s wireless communication blocking system.

Eventually, Sorana did manage to get the worried automaton to promise not to report what she’d seen. Luckily there had been no outward trauma that would have triggered Cam’s safety protocols, but ever since then, the concerned automaton had been keeping an eye out for whatever had caused her episode. Cam had also taken to prodding her with vague questions that had obvious motivations. She had not been programmed for subtlety.

Sorana hadn’t seen or spoken with Kaden since then either. Just as he’d said, he didn’t show up to any of their practice times. He had sent her a few NID messages, but she could never bring herself to reply to them. She even did her best to avoid him in class for the first few days. Kaden didn’t really show up to the classes they had together often, but when he did, she feigned sickness or made up some family matter as an excuse to get out of class. Instructors never doubted once.

She did manage to find the resolve to speak to him after that, but by then he’d stopped showing up for class completely and hadn’t messaged her either. 

The final nail was that he didn’t show up for their scheduled harmonixium practice after their week off, either. As much as it hurt to think about, it seemed that their friendship had truly ended.

“Miss Bellit?” asked an adult voice that cut across Sorana’s thoughts.

Sorana turned and looked up at her instructor. A slightly overweight, tan-furred Lombax stood in front of her desk, fidgeting slightly as he waited to be acknowledged.

Sorana was used to this kind of reaction from most adults, but with Mr. Tukson it wasn’t specifically about her family name. The teacher was surprisingly skittish for a man who taught a Principal Education class, but in spite of this, Sorana actually liked him. 

Unlike many of the instructors here, who saw their students’ success as their own success, but not in a noble way, Mr. Tukson genuinely cared about his students’ education. This was the reason for his interruption now.

“Yes, Mr. Tukson?” Sorana replied politely.

“Have, um- I mean, that is to say, d-do you happen to know w-where Kaden is?” Mr. Tukson stammered nervously. “H-he hasn’t come to class in q-quite a while.”

Sorana had to suppress the slight urge to smile at the man, as it was for the very same reasons that she liked him which made Kaden hate him. 

Kaden often skipped classes, but few instructors cared. His test scores and assignment grades were always one of the highest and as long as a student looked good on record, the instructors could often care less what they did in-between. Besides, after meeting Kaden, many of the school staff decide quickly that they wanted as little to do with the chaotic child as possible.

Not Mr. Tukson, though. Despite the man’s large waist and nervous demeanor, he actually gave Kaden the most trouble of all his teachers and had a surprisingly hard will to break. He even frequently changed his entire teaching method just to try and keep Kaden in class, like assigning homework with physical components that needed to be delivered in person before the due date.

“I’m sorry, professor. I haven’t seen Kaden in… a while,” Sorana answered quietly.

“O-oh, is that right?” he replied thoughtfully. “I, uh, do hope nothing is wrong... w-with him, that is. I haven’t received a si- a sin- a sing-... even one assignment from him this whole week.”

“He hasn’t turned in anything?” Sorana asked in surprise. She knew that Kaden often missed class, but he was at least consistent with turning in assignments, it was how he kept his spot in their prestigious schooling section, after all.

Mr. Tukson seemed a bit startled by Sorana’s sudden curiosity, “Oh, well yes- I mean no! M-mind you, it’s n-not that I ‘miss’ having my home broken into during the middle of the night s-so Kaden can sneak his papers into the class pile, but this many missed deadlines is quite, er, rare… for Kaden, that is.”

Sorana furrowed her brow as she thought about Mr. Tukson had just told her. She began to wonder if maybe something ‘had’ happened with Kaden.

_ ‘Not that it was any of my business now,’ _ she told herself somberly.

“If I hear anything, Mr. Tukson,” Sorana replied, “I’ll let you know.”

* * *

“You’re eating lunch in the cafeteria with us again today?” asked an astonished, brown-furred Lombax as she sat down across from Sorana.

“What’s that make this, four days in a row?” added a white-furred Lombax before he also took a seat beside the first.

Sorana looked up from her mostly untouched meal, “Hello, Aldra. Hello, Travius,” she greeted.

A few seconds later, two server-bots appeared and placed several plates upon the table. Two contained main course meals, while the others were small platters of various side dishes in amounts that were meant to be taken as desired.

“So, what’s the cause?” wondered Travius curiously.

Sorana raised an eyebrow, “Is it that strange to eat in the school cafeteria?”

“For you, yes,” insisted Aldra as she began loading her main plate with various sides. “Some weeks we’re lucky to see you at all and now this?”

Sorana put on an expression of disregard as she replied, “I’ve just had some free time recently… that’s all.”

Aldra was too focused on her food to really care, but Travius gave a simple nod in response before also turning his attention to his food. He either bought her explanation outright or realized that there was nothing else she wanted to talk about.

The three young Lombaxes continued with their meal, talking casually about various goings on in the school, assignments, and other school work they needed to do, and, of course, the near-mandatory discussion about their families.

There was, however, one subject that weighed on Sorana’s mind and she found herself searching for a moment to bring it up as they spoke.

Eventually, during one seemingly innocuous pause in the conversation, Sorana cleared her throat, “Ahem… Um, Travius,” she began in what she hoped was a dismissive and almost uninterested tone. “You had Advanced Mathematical Theory earlier today, right? The one with that boy, Kaden -”

“Ugh, not while I’m eating Sorana!” balked Aldra, before her friend could even say Kaden’s full name. “Don’t tell me you’re still being nice to that... freak?”

Sorana winced, she had become so used to not bringing up Kaden around other students that she forgot about Aldra’s particular dislike of him.

“I think ‘freak’ might be a little too harsh, Aldra,” countered Travius half-heartedly. “While his personality and background may leave much to be desired, I’ve always found his regular arguments with that arrogant instructor of ours to be the highlight of my mornings. At least, I used to.”

“Used to?” questioned Sorana, with more interest than she’d intended to let on.

Travius shrugged, “Yes, well, not that I’ve been keeping track, but I haven’t seen Kaden come to class at all this past week. It’s not all that unusual for him to go missing, you can tell by the unusual quiet, but I’ve never known him to be missing this long.”

Travius stopped and appeared to consider something, “Actually, I first noticed it right around the time ‘you’ started coming to lunch, Sorana.”

“O-oh?” Sorana replied dismissively, trying to sound unconcerned.

Travius furrowed his brow in thought, but luckily Aldra redrew his attention back to her, “If you ask me, I say good riddance to the insolent plebeian. My parents are always on my case about me not being in the top ten of our test rankings and yet every semester and in every subject ‘he’s’ there. Do you know what it’s like to have to be constantly compared to someone like that?”

Travius eyed Aldra wryly, “If he’s in the top ten, I should think that almost ‘everyone’ knows what that’s like.”

Aldra glared back at him, “Hmph, well... maybe with him gone now, someone more deserving will finally get a shot at the top.”

Travius rolled his eyes and seemingly returned his attention to his food, “Your best subject is literature and somehow I don’t think moving from rank twenty-four to twenty-three is all the ‘shot’ you need.”

Aldra’s ears bent back angrily and she opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by Sorana, who had gotten up from the table. Both Aldra and Travius could see the majority of Sorana’s meal remained uneaten, even as she waved to the robotic cafeteria workers to come and remove it.

“Where are you going?” questioned Aldra.

Sorana turned back to her friends and gave a slight bow of apology, “I’m not feeling very hungry today. I think I’ll just... get a head start on my next class.”

* * *

With nearly an hour before her next class, Sorana wandered the halls of her school. Subconsciously, she caught herself heading for the music room, where she would usually use any and all free time to practice her harmonixium playing. However, this was pointless as she had refused to touch the instrument ever since she’d failed to achieve her goal.

To her surprise, her instructors had all accepted her change of attitude willingly. They even went so far as to tell her parents that such creative blocks were typical of students at such major milestones and had advised that any further practice not be forced.

This turned out to be a major boon for Sorana, not only because she had little motivation to play, but also because she had been neglecting her academic studies in order to work on her musical piece. This new-found free time gave her the chance she needed to catch up.

Since she had no need to go to the music room, Sorana redirected herself down a random hallway and continued to wander. She didn’t know where she’d go now, but ever since her conversation with Mr. Tuckson this morning, she couldn’t help but wonder about Kaden. Old habits, she supposed. 

Now, with the added revelation that he’d been skipping Travius’ class as well, the concern she felt grew even stronger. Try as she might, sorana could not tear her mind away from the subject and soon found herself at the entrance to her school’s science and engineering department.

The young Lombax looked up at the department sign on the wall and sighed to herself. At the very least, she decided, there was no harm in looking into it.

According to Kaden’s official school schedule, his current class was Mechanical and Electrical Devices. While there was no guarantee that Kaden would be there either, Sorana was hopeful that the tan Lombax would at least have attended classes he was interested in.

Just a short walk from the entrance, Sorana found Kaden’s classroom. Like many workshops in the school, this one was built with an observation window. 

Through this clear shield, Sorana could see dozens of Lombax students, some in groups and others alone, all working at various benches. 

Sparks flew as some welded pieces of metal together, while electricity danced around others as they experimentally charged and discharged everything from simple capacitors to micro-fusion reactors.

There were plenty of students working diligently in the class, but it quickly became clear that none of them were Kaden.

“Um, can I, er… help you?” asked a nervous voice to Sorana’s side.

Sorana turned toward the doorway to the workshop and found another Lombax student, short, with black fur standing halfway out of it. They must have seen her peering in through the window and were clearly trying to be helpful, but they shuffled awkwardly in place while waiting for her response.

Sorana was caught slightly off-guard by the question. It hadn’t been her intention to interrupt another class, plus, she wasn’t even completely sure what she was doing here.

Still, she smiled disarmingly, “Hello, I’m sorry to intrude, but I’m looking for a particular student.”

The awkward Lombax nodded eagerly, “Yeah, I can help with that. Who are you looking for?” he asked.

Sorana hesitated for a moment, but then decided there was nothing to lose, “I’m looking for Kaden-”

“Kaden?!” the boy choked out in a panic, cutting off Sorana before looking to his right and left, as if to make sure no one was watching. He then leaned in toward Sorana, “Whatever he did, I guarantee that you shouldn’t confront him directly about it. I heard that the school has a special trust fund for when he steals or breaks something. You should go to the main offices and ask for-”

But Sorana put her hand up and smiled again with a slight shake of her head, “Please don’t worry, I’m not looking for Kaden because of anything bad.”

Upon hearing these words, the student just stared at Sorana with a look of profound confusion on his face, as if he could not comprehend anyone looking for Kaden for any other reason than ‘something bad’.

Before he could say anything else, however, another student showed up, “Who’s this?” demanded a female Lombax.

She was taller than the first student, lacking any of the awkward postures and instead stood confidently to the point of arrogance. Her fur was tan while her expression was unhappy. Also, judging by the look that the first student was giving her, her demeanor wasn’t the only thing unpleasant about her.

Despite this, Sorana smiled at her politely, “Hello, I’m-”

“Hey,” the girl interrupted suddenly, her expression twisting into that of recognition and surprise, “You’re one of them Bellits!”

Judging by the girl’s rude tone, despite having realized who Sorana was, and from the advanced technologies class that they all stood in front off, Sorana had a pretty good idea of who she was dealing with.

Sorana’s friendly expression didn’t change, but inwardly she let out a huge sigh,  _ ‘Ugh, a Calmak...’  _

“Name’s Tararae Calmak,” the girl declared loudly, jabbing her thumb to her chest as she did, “and this here,” she continued as she then thumbed the classroom’s sign, “this is an ‘advanced’ technologies class. So, what’s a Bellit doing here?”

Despite her efforts, Sorana’s eyelids squinted only a hair at the obvious slight. The Calmak family was a group that had made their fortune by collecting and selling low-grade Lombax technology to extra-fastoonian entities.

This often put them in conflict with the Bellits, seeing as it was  The Council for the Oversight of Goods and Services Across and Beyond Fastoon's Atmosphere’s job to regulate the transfer of goods from Fastoon to the rest of the galaxy. 

While not a power strictly given to them by the Lombax High Council, this essentially put control over what kinds of technology were deemed  acceptable to pass the Lombaxes’ self-imposed embargo on high-level technology after the Great War.

However, the Calmak’s legacy was only two generations old, which was why this Tararae girl had so little tact with Sorana. She probably grew up in an environment where her elders constantly badmouthed the Bellits, blaming them for limiting their product output and eating their profits, but had neglected to make it clear that they were all supposed to get down on hands and knees to kiss the tail-end of any Bellit they met… if they wanted to get their products’ transportation approved.

Sorana looked for a way out of the unpleasant confrontation, “I’m sorry, but I was in the middle of talking to…” she began, gesturing to the first student, but she trailed off when she noticed the wide-eyed expression on his face at having heard she was a Bellit. 

“Um- I-... my name is- that is… Madame Bellit...” the boy began, shakily trying to introduce himself properly. Sorana didn’t know if the boy’s apprehension was from awe, fear, or a mix of both, but she knew that her chances of finding out about Kaden were all but lost now.

“A Bellit!” exclaimed a new voice from within the classroom. 

Sorana turned to find yet another student pushing his way past the Calmak girl, his arm outstretched in what looked like a flying attempt at a handshake. It would have been funny to see, had it not been happening to her.

“My name is-” the new student tried to say, but he was cut off by a sharp elbow jab from Tararae.

“Hey, I wasn’t done saying my bit,” the girl barked angrily, “Get in line!”

Sorana could now see that most of the students in the classroom had turned their attention to the door as more kids slowly came to see what was going on.

This made Sorana outwardly sigh in dismay before she could stop herself.

Luckily though, all of the commotion had finally brought the attention of the class’ instructor.

“What’s going on here?” demanded an adult, white-furred Lombax in a rough and somewhat metallic tone. 

The instructor was wearing a typical-looking lab coat, but her face took Sorana by surprise. Where her left eye should be, as well as part of her head, was a large, metal block, dotted with sensors and circuitry, and topped with a prosthetic ear. The eye port made a soft whirring noise as it scanned the group of students.

No one said anything, not even Tararae.

The woman’s expression darkened further, “All of you, get back to work,” she commanded coldly, and the small group dispersed instantly.

After a few seconds, Sorana was the only one left standing there. 

There came another whir of cybernetics as the instructor then turned her attention to Sorana, “And what do you want?” she hissed in annoyance, pointing a cybernetic finger at her.

Sorana bowed her head respectfully to the teacher, “I’m sorry for interrupting your class, ma’am. I was just hoping to find one of your students here, his name is-”

“Kaden, right?” interrupted the instructor impatiently. “He’s the only one not here today, or I’d assume you wouldn’t still be looking. Matter of fact, he hasn’t been to class all week.”

“A whole week?” Sorana repeated in surprise, forgetting the decorum of talking to an adult. She hadn’t been certain that Kaden would be here now, but for him to not have shown up in the workshop for over a week was completely unexpected. Advanced Technologies was one of the only classes that he actually liked, she thought that he’d at least come to ‘it’ if nothing else.

“Hmm, well let me clarify,” the instructor began again, seeing the look of concern on Sorana’s face, “He hasn’t shown up for class, but he’s definitely been here as recently as this morning.”

Sorana raised an eyebrow quizzically, “He was here this morning, but didn’t come to class? Did you see him?”

The instructor shook her head, “No, I didn’t. I hadn’t gotten in yet, but when I came back for my first class, a set of laser-branding tools was missing. He’s the only person I can think of that can crack the code on the equipment vault, but wouldn’t steal anything important.”

“He steals things?” Sorana asked in amazement. 

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t surprised by the fact that Kaden stole stuff, but she ‘was’ curious about why the instructor seemed so uncaring about it.

The instructor just shook her head despondently, “More like borrow without permission, but things ‘usually’ show up back where they’re supposed to be… eventually. It’s not ideal, not that I have a choice, but it is tolerable. If I consider the materials that go missing as a ‘loss’, I can then consider the time I save by not having to teach him an Omniwrench from his tailside as a ‘win’… unlike the rest of these privileged fur tufts.” 

Just as the instructor finished her sentence, a loud crack echoed across the workshop. Both she and Sorana turned to see it’s source and found a smoking stack of charred robotic parts next to a smoking, charred Lombax.

The instructor’s organic eye squinted unhappily at the blackened student for a few seconds until they suddenly coughed out a cloud of dark smoke.

The instructor then sighed in mild relief at the sign of life, before turning back to Sorana, “So, as you can see, Miss Bellit, Kaden is not here and I now have accident paperwork to file. Good day.”

And with that, she left, waving the door to the workshop shut behind her.

Sorana watched as a small squad of medical-bots came rolling over to inspect the injured student. When they had rolled away with the student on a stretcher, she then turned from the window and continued down the hall.

* * *

Sorana was trying to make her way out of the tech labs and back to the main area of the educational facility, but she was having difficulty. She wasn’t lost, per se, as she knew the area’s general layout from having come with Kaden so many times before. 

Where she ‘was’ lost, however, was in her own thoughts.

As much as the conflict between her and Kaden had bothered her, she had at least hoped that the two of them could one day restart their friendship. It was a far-flung dream that Sorana knew had no basis in logic. After all, outside the harmonixium, they had nothing in common.

Still, she had hoped. 

Now, with the revelations that Kaden wasn’t attending any of his classes or even turning in his assignments, those hopes seemed all the more fleeting.

Sorana’s school was very strict about grades… at least when it came to a case like Kaden’s. She almost hadn’t believed it when she’d found out that Kaden had qualified for an academic acceptance to her school. 

Sorana had always secretly believed that Kaden had done it to be close to her, but she was too embarrassed to ask him outright. She did not know ‘for sure’ why Kaden was letting his grades slip now, but the thought that it might be because of her only made her feel more saddened. But, she did know that if things continued like this, he would be expelled for sure.

Sorana’s view of the ground suddenly ended and she looked up to find another wall at the end of another dead-end hallway. Upon looking around at the rest of the hallway, she realized that this time she really was lost.

Sorana groaned to herself,  _ ‘It’s not going to matter what Kaden does if I never find my way out of this section,’  _ she told herself.

The thought of having to live, stranded, in the school’s Technical Sciences wing and the image of Kaden probably loving the idea brought a half-smile to Sorana’s lips. Lost in this thought, her ears twitched reflexively as they picked up the soft sound of tapping.

Curious, she looked around for what was making the sound, but could find nothing.

She scratched her ears in confusion. She could still hear the tapping, but could see nothing of a source. As she moved quietly down the hallway, straining her ears as she did, the sound moved further down the hallway as well.

When she finally realized that the sound was coming from inside the walls, a thought struck her.

Unsure of herself, Sorana knocked lightly on the wall where she believed the sound was coming from and it suddenly ceased. 

She then leaned her head over to the wall and, in a hushed tone, she asked, “Brad? Is that you?”

A second later a sharp, metal spike burst from the wall, startling Sorana with its suddenness, before being pulled back. Next, the whine of a buzzsaw echoed in the hallway until a perfectly round circle had been cut.

Another second later, and the newly made disc had been pulled back into the wall and Brad’s tiny, robotic face poked out from the hole it had left behind.

Brad tilted his tiny ocular sensors up toward Sorana’s face and flicked his shutters curiously.

Sorana smiled in relief at the small, robotic spider, “Boy am I glad to see you! I’ve been wandering around these halls for far too long… do you think you could show me the way out?”

The two antennae on Brad’s main sensor housing twitched eagerly and within seconds the metal arachnid had re-sealed the hole in the wall. Then, after a beckoning wave from one of its metallic legs, he skittered away across the floor and down the hallway.

Sorana smiled to herself and took off after him. Finally, she could get out of this section of the school and get back to her day. There was nothing she could do about Kaden for now.

She had been too afraid to send him a NID message before, but these new revelations had given her the resolve to do so. Despite this, however, the school jammed all unauthorized NID communications within its walls, so she’d have to wait until school let out.

Besides, even if Kaden was somewhere in the school like his instructor had suggested, she had no way of knowing where that was… 

Then… a thought occurred to her.

“Brad, wait!” Sorana yelled out suddenly.

At hearing his name being called, Brad froze in place, with three of his spider legs still raised in the air, before turning his main sensor housing around and looking straight at Sorana. His antennae twitched curiously.

Sorana hesitated at first, she hadn’t expected the opportunity to come so soon after she’d decided to face it.

But, with a deep breath, she steeled her resolve, “Brad,” she said with determination, “Do you know where Kaden is?”

Brad’s antennae twitched again.

* * *

Sorana peered into the dimly lit room through the crack in the door while her tiny, robotic guide sat patiently by her feet.

This area of the school was very old, abandoned almost, and probably only used for storage. Still, it was amazing to find hinged doors in a modern facility like this one. They must have been installed for an aesthetic purpose. 

But none of that mattered now. 

Inside the room, Sorana could just make out the silhouettes of nearly a dozen robotic beings, or at least she thought so. They were of various model types and made for many different functions, so it was hard to pick out what oddly shaped shadow belonged to what. 

Helping her see the figures were sporadic flashes that illuminated various features and forms. The light emanated from the center of the room. 

Straining her eyes, Sorana could only just discern the familiar outline of a Lombax at the epicenter of the light’s source. Their outline burst in and out of existence with each flash of light.

As she continued to squint into the darkness, the intermediate rhythm of flashing lights suddenly stopped and the shadow of a Lombax stood up, before making a gesture with their hand that Sorana could not make out.

A second later, the lights of the room burst to life and every dark shape and shadow within the room was illuminated all at once, nearly blinding Sorana in the process.

After blinking hard several times, the white-furred Lombax found that she could now clearly see around a dozen or so maintenance robots, of various sizes and purposes, all standing around Kaden. The unmistakable, tan Lombax himself was wearing welding goggles, but moved them up to his forehead a moment later.

“Done,” Kaden announced proudly to the assembled mechanical beings.

This comment was immediately followed by a raucous series of beeps and hard-to-hear robotic voices. 

Confused by what she was looking at, Sorana eventually spotted what was sitting on the workbench that Kaden had just gotten up from. It was a large sorting droid.

Sorana recognized the robot from when she’d visited the District Ten Physical Information Archives. It was a place where these ancient forms of data retention called ‘books’ were stored. The place had been filled with hundreds of identical sorting droids that would zip along the seemingly endless aisles to retrieve and organize the stored objects.

However, it was clear that this group of robots’ focus was not on the droid itself, but on the still glowing-hot symbols that had been newly etched into its side. 

Sorana had to squint to see it, but she could just make out the image of an open book with a ribbon across it. There were also binary numbers above and below the image.

At first, Sorana didn’t know what she was seeing, but Kaden cleared it up for her.

“Alright, who’s next?” the tan Lombax asked as he stretched out his muscles, sore from having sat too long. 

Immediately there was another wave of electronic beeping and static-filled words from the robots around him.

Kaden looked around the room as he considered what they were saying, “No, no, no!” he declared resolutely, “I’m not doing any more ancient lombax words or symbols unless the bot that wants them can actually read what they say as a native function… I don’t care if you can download the app. And, for the last time, I will ‘not’ draw any exposed circuitry. Most of you guys work in a ‘school’... have some class.”

As Kaden laughed at his own joke and the air was filled with a strangely recognizable, multi-robot groan, Sorana finally realized what Kaden was doing instead of going to class.

_ ‘Robot tattoos...’ _ she thought in disbelief. 

Up until now, Sorana had hoped that Kaden had simply become obsessed with some other project as was typical of him. There had been times where Kaden would disappear for days, only to reappear with some fantastical invention or tale of grand discovery, but not for something as frivolous as ‘robot tattoos’.

Strong emotions began to pool in Sorana’s mind. At this moment, she still did not know if she was directly responsible for his current actions, but she knew that he wasn’t missing assignments and skipping class all for the sake of making tattoos for his robot friends. He was simply neglecting his work out of lack of desire.

The thought that Kaden had lost interest in school because he had lost interest in her and her playing created a strong sense of guilt in Sorana. The reminder that this would likely lead to Kaden’s eventual expulsion from school generated a fear of loneliness for what life would be like without him. 

Worst of all, the idea that this was all because she had failed to keep up with his abilities on the harmonixium brought back the recent feelings of inadequacy that she’d been wallowing in for more than a week now. 

There wasn’t a single moment in Sorana’s life that she could remember before the harmonixium. Her oldest memories, of learning to read and write standard galactic language were right alongside her memories of learning to read music sheets and coordinate the symbols with her fingers. Sorana had dedicated her whole life to playing the harmonixium and, in just a few, short years, Kaden had surpassed her. The wave of emotions these thoughts caused were enough to crush her soul.

Or… at least they would have been.

However, at this exact moment, Sorana felt ‘none’ of these emotions. There was simply no room left in her heart for sorrow or pain of any kind. Instead, her heart, her mind, and her body were rapidly being filled with an ever-growing, blinding rage, fueled by the thought that such prowess and ability, skills and talent that she herself longed for, was going to waste on such a raritanium-skulled, fluffy-eared, lazy sack of fur.

As this thought cycled through Sorana’s mind again and again, she could feel her anger and blood pressure growing exponentially. It got to the point that she was literally shaking with fury as the lights went out once more and she watched the Lombax silhouette line up his laser brand with the outline on yet another metal chassis.

Lucky for her, it was a swinging door…

* * *

The loud bang reverberated off the walls and made everyone in the room, both organic and not, jump in surprise. As he did, Kaden accidentally carved a line straight up the side of the robot he was working on.

All ocular sensors quickly turned toward the source of the sound where they found a door hanging loosely open on its one remaining hinge and an incredibly angry-looking Lombax standing where it had just been.

Somewhere in the room, a robot hit the light switch again, illuminating the seething Lombax form, and Kaden’s mouth fell in confusion.

“Sorana?” he asked non-rhetorically. While the face and the form were familiar to him, Kaden had never seen his friend look as angry as she did now. He hadn’t even seen her seriously annoyed since the day they met.

In way of response, Sorana put one foot down heavily in front of the other, making her way toward Kaden slowly and deliberately.

“Uh, S-sorana, what are you-” but, as Kaden tried to awkwardly engage in dialogue, Sorana had closed the gap between them.

Now within range, the white-furred Lombax’s arm shot upward and seized one of Kaden’s ears in a painfully tight grip, before pulling down hard, forcing the head it was attached to into a position where she could glower down at it.

Kaden let out a squeal of pain and surprise, causing the room full of mechanoids to beep and click in alarm. The captured Lombax reached up reflexively and grabbed for the wrist of the hand that held his ear, but he couldn’t figure out if it was part of someone’s arm or an iron bar, it didn’t move even an inch as he struggled against its hold.

Many of the mechanical beings in the room searched their databanks for emergency subroutines, safety protocols, anything that they could do to help. Some even plucked up the code to do something decisive and made movements to help their organic friend, but the moment she noticed their intentions, Sorana turned her burning gaze on them.

Every automaton with photoreceptors froze in sudden, unexplained motor seizure, as the intensity of the glare hit them. 

En masse the metal-made group began logging First and Third Law activation events and quickly walked/drove/floated away from the scene as quickly as their legs/wheels/jets could take them.

Within seconds the room was empty, save for the two Lombaxes.

Sorana continued to stare hard at the door for what would have been an uncomfortably long time, even ‘if’ Kaden’s ear had not been in a vice grip.

Eventually, though, the time had gone on long enough that the tan Lombax managed to regain enough sense to talk, “Sorana, what are you doing?” he demanded up at his captor, his head still held firmly in its awkward angle. “You’re hurting my ear!”

But this was the wrong thing to say. And, Kaden knew it was the wrong thing to say, because the impossibly tight, crushing force on his ear seemed to miraculously intensify.

“Ow, ow, ow, ooooowwww!” he cried painfully.

Through one, half-shut, tear-filled eye, the helpless Lombax could now see Sorana slowly turning her head as if it were a separate entity from her body, until her rage-filled gaze was pointed straight down at him once more.

Now, Kaden still hadn’t been sure that this person was really Sorana up to this point, but looking at her now, even this closely... he still wasn’t sure. And when she spoke... it didn’t help either.

“What have you been doing this past week?” she demanded in a voice that was somehow a combination of a growl and a hiss, which doesn’t seem like it should be intimidating or even work, but... it was and it did.

“I-” Kaden tried to explain, but he was cut off by another jolt of pain as Sorana pulled slightly on his ear.

“That was rhetorical!” she barked angrily. “I know you’ve been skipping class and ignoring your assignments! What have you been doing that’s so much more important than your future?!”

“Well, I was just-” he tried again, but once more Sorana pulled sharply on his ear.

“Don’t you lie to me!” she hissed-slash-growled knowingly. “Just now you were making ‘robot tattoos’ when I know very well you have a Physics test to be taking soon! Physics! The class that you literally pass in your sleep! At this rate you’re going to get expelled, so what, in the council’s name, are you thinking?!”

Kaden looked up nervously, but chose not to answer for fear of being punished again.

But it was... surprise!... the wrong response.

Sorana’s eyes became slits as she squinted her fury down at her ‘friend’. With another sharp tug, she pulled him off balance, and then pushed down suddenly, forcing him to his knees.

“Answer me!” she demanded harshly, before reaching down with her other hand and tapping on his forehead. “I want to know ‘exactly’ what’s going through that giant brain, behind this massively thick skull, right now!”

Kaden’s mind had still not fully grasped the situation he was in, so, in it’s panic, he answered as truthfully as he could, “You’re… a ‘lot’ stronger than I thought.”

Now... in all fairness, ‘nobody’ knew what went on in Kaden’s head. Even he sometimes had trouble with answering that. So, any objective observer of the current situation would ‘have’ to agree that Sorana could ‘not’ be blamed for assuming that his response was anything short of a serious answer to a situation that he was taking seriously.

Blood boiled to steam in her veins and violent spasms of anger and adrenaline began to shake every muscle in her body. All at once Sorana released her hold on Kaden. 

This came as a sudden and surprising relief to the imperiled young Lombax, but it did not last long. 

Instead, Sorana slowly reached down with both of her quaking hands and grabbed a tight hold of the collar on Kaden’s suit.

Kaden watched her oddly slow movement with what can only be described as a dazed fascination, then a second later, found himself being rapidly lifted up into the air, clean off his feet, and head over tail until he was slammed hard onto his back across the floor.

Kaden coughed as the air was knocked out of his lungs. There was another, slight relief of pressure where he tried to catch his breath, but before he could, there was another, upward yank by the still clenched fists of Sorana’s hold on his collar. 

Now, hovering a few inches off the desk’s surface, Kaden found himself brought face to face with Sorana’s burning gaze and unable to tear his eyes away from them.

Kaden winced in preparation for what was sure to come, but, to his surprise, Sorana’s eyes suddenly softened and he blinked in confusion.

“I don’t know where things stand between you and me now, Kaden,” she began in a voice that was much less aggressive than it had been so far. 

This caught Kaden off guard. There was a short moment of silence that felt almost sad.

But then Sorana’s eyes hardened once more, and the heat of their glare could be felt again, “And I don’t care,” she continued with her previous tone. “No matter how good you are… No! ‘Because’ of how good you are... at everything you do… I’m not going to let your genius be squandered by your stupidity!”

Sorana then pressed Kaden back into the table to emphasize her point, “You’re not going to get expelled for slacking off, you're going to go back to your classes, all of them, and pass with flying colors. You’re going to do all your assignments on time, pass all your tests, and ‘not’ get expelled for some stupid, disciplinary reason… Do you understand?!”

Kaden nodded his head vigorously while muttering a fearful, “Mmhmm,” in reply.

Seeing his compliance, Sorana relaxed her grip and let out a breath of satisfaction. She stood up to her full height and looked down at the still prone Kaden.

When Sorana next spoke, her voice was cold and commanding, with a matter-of-fact tone, “Don’t forget, Kaden, I know your secrets. Information the Peacekeepers would give… and take, limbs for,” Kaden’s eyes widened as he realized what she was implying and the truth of her words. “I don’t really care if you want to keep playing the harmonixium or pursue any of your other ‘hobbies’... but, if you neglect your schoolwork again…”

* * *

_ ‘Did I really body slam him?’ _ Sorana wondered to herself as she twirled her fork around her few remaining pieces of fruit. Somehow, that part felt like embellishment on her behalf, but she remembered it ‘so’ clearly.

But at least she had her answer. The same basic scene had played out several times since then, today for example, but that had been the ‘first’ time she really reprimanded Kaden and it reminded her ‘why’ she cared so much.

Other thoughts came along with the memories too. She felt a deep sense of guilt in her gut at using things Kaden had told her in confidence as blackmail the way she did. She honestly didn’t even believe she had the heart to go through with it, had he called her bluff. But, if one wanted to train a wild monster... they needed a strong rope.

She had expected Kaden to despise her for doing this to him. She had already expected to lose him as a friend before that, so she was then prepared to accept any loathsome feelings he felt towards her after. So long as it ensured that he did not revert to wasting his skills. 

But, to her utter confusion, and relief, he seemed to act as if the whole incident had never happened at all, minus the sudden ‘motivation’ to do school work. It was weird, and suspicious, but she had decided that asking about it would be pushing her good fortune way too much.

She also felt stupid, remembering how she’d perceived her harmonixium playing back then. Kaden never did play the instrument with her again after that, but once he’d obediently returned his focus to his schoolwork, she had eventually found her way back to her beloved music.

However, since she no longer compared herself only to Kaden’s skills, she finally took a realistic look at her progress. It was sometime after that when she’d found the giant “Best in City” competition plaque that she’d stuffed haphazardly under her bed without a care… it had been an all-ages competition.

"Finished!" declared a sixteen-year-old Kaden in triumph, shaking Sorana from her thoughts, before he slammed his spoon into his now empty bowl. 

Kaden then covered his mouth with his hand and grabbed the table top with his other to stop himself from vomiting while several other students turned to see the cause of the commotion.

Sorana quickly began reorganizing her mental reflections as she watched her childhood friend's face shift back and forth from gleeful victory to sickly horror and pain.

Ever since that fateful day in the old school section, Sorana had made it her duty to ensure Kaden would not completely waste his talents. Of course, she also had to make sure he didn’t do something to kill himself as well, but that was a secondary priority.

Sorana polished off the last bite of her meal as well. Then, after setting down her silverware and removing her napkin she cleared her throat and interlaced her fingers across the table like a government official preparing to speak.

"Congratulations," she said sarcastically, "Now sit down," she commanded. 

Kaden did as he was told and Alister, after quickly shoveling the last few bites of his meal into his mouth, sat up to attention as well.

"Knowing you, Kaden,” Sorana continued, “I'll bet you're planning on getting revenge for this whole tournament thing in some overly obsessive way. Am I right?" 

Kaden's expression stiffened as, once again, his oldest friend managed to hit the nail on the head, leaving him with nothing to say. 

After waiting a few seconds in silence Sorana instead turned to the other Lombax at the table, "Alister?" she asked simply.

"Kaden’s meeting with a supplier tonight about a deal to help him invent weapons and defeat Kor," Alister answered stiffly as if responding to a drill sergeant.

"Traitor…" hissed Kaden under his breath towards Alister.

"You dug the grave," Alister whispered back, "you lay in it."

"Quiet," Sorana interrupted sternly and they both returned their attention forward. "To be honest, Kaden... I don't really mind what you do. As long as you don’t neglect your school work like always, when you get a hold of something shiny." 

Kaden looked confused, partly as to what exactly the 'shiny' bit of the metaphor was alluding to, but mostly from the fact that Sorana wasn't fully against his plans, "So you don't care if we try to take on Kor again?" Kaden asked in disbelief.

"As I said,” Sorana continued formally, “so long as you complete your schoolwork, you can have any hobby you want." A grin then spread across her lips. "Besides, it’s not like you’ll get another shot at him for at least a year."

"What?" said Kaden, even more confused now. He then turned to Alister for confirmation, but his white-furred friend didn't look surprised at all by the comment.

"You see Kaden," Sorana continued again, "there are plenty of downsides to locking yourself in your room and cutting off contact with civil society. For instance, you missed the school gossip that Kor, after a review of his tournament performance, had been promoted to level two in the Military Field. Nearly setting a new record for promotion speed too."

Kaden leaned back in his chair as the news hit him. He had already known that level one students rarely competed against each other besides the 'breaking in battle' that was the MSET, but he had still hoped that there'd be an opportunity to show up Kor in one of their classes. If Kor was now a level two, though, then that meant there was almost no chance of them facing off again before the next tournament.

Sorana slid her seat out from the table and stood up, "Well that was delicious," she said cheerfully before she circled the table and leaned close to Kaden. "And, just for future reference, I’d be happy to treat you to something a little more… ‘palatable’ next time, so answer your communicator, ok?"

"Yes sir," answered Kaden sarcastically, but with a clear tone of defeat.

Sorana nodded satisfactorily to herself and left without another word.

Alister breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing that he’d managed not to get caught in the crossfire... this time. He wanted to stay on Sorana’s good side for more reasons than one.

Alister had only known Kaden for a few years and Sorana for only half that time, but he’d known of the Bellit family long before he'd coincidentally met her through Kaden.

Sorana's parents were both diplomats who dealt mostly with extra-planetary politics, as were most of her extended family. They held a lot of influence with interplanetary exports and imports, so his family's mining corporation (which mines all its material off-world) held their opinion in very high regard. 

Alister sincerely doubted that Sorana would use her family's power inappropriately, but he was still reluctant to cross her when she was seriously angry.  Sorana wasn't usually that domineering and scary, but she could be if she wanted to. Those kinds of girls were the most terrifying in his opinion.

"If it's any consolation," Alister began in an apparent attempt to console his friend, "whatever that meat was that she ordered... it was ‘really’ good." 

Kaden turned only his head to stare appreciatively at his friend, "It is not," he answered and then paused for a moment. "So, you knew that Kor had been promoted to level two?"

Alister nodded, "It's pretty rare for a level one student to get promoted after only a month at the academy," he replied as he used his fingers to collect the last few drops of the ridiculously sweet and tangy sauce from his plate. "You'd have to be living under a rock not to hear about it."

Kaden let out a sigh before leaning his head back and staring up at the ceiling, his stomach grumbling angrily in protest.

"Then the question is, ‘what now?’"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tararae Calmak - Calmak means ‘scrounge’ in Azerbaijani. This is in reference to the families focus on sub-state-of-the-art technology, basically picking through the stuff nobody uses anymore to make a profit.


	8. Unveiled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a mistake when I originally posted Part 2 of Days Past, where I counted this chapter among those meant for Part 3. This part was listed as completed for a while before I realized and so I had to add this chapter back on afterward.

Regular classes had finally resumed for both Kaden and Alister. They shared their Basic Ranged Weapons class and, upon arriving, were both immediately given a standard issue blaster-rifle and were ordered to field strip them, clean them, and reassemble them before their turn on the firing range.

As the two Lombaxes sat with their class squad, the steady beat of muffled energy blasts could be heard from outside the door and down the hall.

"So, how's the plan to defeat Kor coming along?" Alister asked. There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice since he already knew there was nothing Kaden could really do yet, what with the next tournament almost a year away and Sorana keeping an eye on him.

"To be honest, I don't have much of one," Kaden answered honestly, completely missing the sarcasm. "There’s no point in trying to build anything before I get access to Mercatus’s workshop and I don't really want to draw up any detailed schematics until I know what equipment I'll be working with."

"That sounds more like ‘nothing’ rather than 'not much'," noted Alister mockingly.

"It might as well be!" Kaden grumbled back, still oblivious to Alister’s attempted slights. "I figured I'd at least try to learn more about Red Lombaxes and see if they had any 'legendary' weaknesses, but that turned out to be a waste of time. I can't find a single accredited historical group with public data on the subject."

"You mean no one knows anything about them?" Alister asked in surprise.

"That’s the thing," replied Kaden, "with all the legends on the holo-net about Red Lombaxes, not to mention the fact that we have one right here at school, you would think at least one person out there with a degree in history would know something. There should at least be a few accredited articles about where the legends come from, but there's nothing! It's almost like there's a secret council edict that's preventing any and all official acknowledgment of Red Lombaxes."

"Now you sound like a conspiracy theorist," joked Alister, though he did get the feeling that Kaden was probably right, as he usually was about these kinds of things. "Then how about any of the unofficial stuff," he continued, changing focus, "anything of value on Geekapedia?"

Kaden groaned his displeasure, "I think I'm worse off now than I was before reading that stuff. If I didn’t have Kor for a reference, I'd probably believe that Red Lombaxes could grow over ten feet tall, breathe fire, fly, regenerate after sucking the blood of another Lombax, and grant wishes."

"Haha, maybe he 'can' spit fire," laughed Alister. "I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we fought him he hawked a flaming loogie at us."

Kaden smiled at Alister’s joke, "And those are just the tip of the iceberg," Kaden continued, joining in on his friend’s humor. "According to several Red Lombax 'experts', an adult Red Lombax can change their fur color, see in the dark, doesn't need to sleep, is immune to poison, and has a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth that can chew through Raritanium!"

Alister stopped smiling, "Well, we know that last one's true," he noted solemnly.

Kaden's tail curled involuntarily as he flashed back to the moment they'd briefly witnessed Kor's Sharkigator grin and with it came the memory of his embarrassing defeat during the tournament.

"Maybe not the Raritanium part," Kaden countered sourly, "but the stuff about the poison may have some merit to it as well, after what you mentioned in your survival class. What’s the rest of his face look like anyway?" he asked casually.

Alister was caught off guard when he realized that Kaden’s question was not only a serious one, but also aimed at him, "Why would I know what his face looks like?" he questioned in confusion.

"You mean you've never seen it?" Kaden pressed curiously. "Don't all level one Military Field students have to stay in a barracks together? I know he needs a mask to breathe, but if he never took the thing off at all then he'd need to be in a full enviro-suit at all times. He wouldn't be able to walk around with a simple miner's ‘O’-two mask and goggles."

"He's never stayed in the barracks," Alister answered with a shrug.

Kaden stopped what he was working on and looked up, "What do you mean he’s never stayed in the barracks?" he shot back. "Why didn't you tell me? He was a level one for most of the semester. Where does he sleep?"

"No one knows," Alister admitted, only realizing now how curious this information was. "He just shows up to classes. I've heard that some students tried to follow him a few times, but they always lose him after he gets on the grav-lifts. It makes sense though; after all, he probably needs to sleep in some kind of a bubble, right?" Alister finished assembling his blaster and looked down its barrel sight before cycling its power cell. "If he's actually a Red Lombax, that is."

Kaden paused at Alister's words before reattaching the focusing barrel on his own weapon, "What do you mean?" he pressed curiously.

"Well, think about it," Alister began as he put down his finished weapon and reached for his personal Combuster. "We've only ever seen his ears that one time, so other than that we'd have no reason to suspect that he has red fur at all. I mean what were the chances that the mythical Red Lombaxes actually existed before we saw Kor? Secondly, what are the chances that one just happens to show up nonchalantly for the first day of school? You said it yourself, there are no official records of them anywhere."

Kaden pondered Alister's theory, "It's possible, but why would someone impersonate a Red Lombax?" he speculated.

At this, Alister got an eager expression on his face, "I think Nova Academy set it up," he continued, in full sleuthing mode now. "I think it's some way of motivating the new crop of students by artificially raising the bar for everyone here. I've definitely seen an uptick in work ethic around the Military field since a level one humiliated nearly everyone. It's definitely managed to get you hooked,” he added, with a knowing look. “Then, just when he's the center of attention, he suddenly gets promoted and it's like he disappears without a trace."

Kaden shook his head, "Now who sounds like a conspiracy theorist?" he retorted, before finishing his own blaster and cycling its power cell.

"What would you do if it turned out that Kor wasn't a Red Lombax?" Alister continued, unwilling to let his theory die there.

Kaden thought about the scenario, "It doesn't really matter," he concluded after only a few seconds. "Even if he's not a Red Lombax, he still beat us and I'm not going to let that sit. He can't be much older than us either, twenty at the most. Since he's not much taller than we are, he must still be an adolescent. Unless, of course, you don't think he's even a Lombax at all."

"No, I don't doubt that he's a Lombax," replied Alister, "or rather, I don't want to believe someone other than a Lombax can fight like he does. Either way, the only thing we know about him is what kind of armor he wears and what weapons he carries. That's not a lot to go on."

Kaden nodded, "At least in that area I've had a little luck." he said, a little more optimistically. "I was able to learn about his armor, that old G-83 medium-class. It's pretty versatile, but it's still a fully enclosed, armor unit, so there has to be at least a small hindrance to peripheral vision and movement-'

"Ha," interrupted Alister sarcastically, "If his armor is hindering him in any way, I'd hate to see what he's like naked."

While the images Alister's words had conjured in Kaden’s mind weren't pleasant ones, he had to agree that there was something almost supernatural about Kor's speed.

Kaden simply shrugged off the thoughts and continued, "Besides his armor, he's only ever used weapons for short and medium ranged combat. Either he's not good with long-range weapons or-"

"Or he just likes crushing his opponents up close," spat Alister bitterly as he reflexively rubbed the spot where Kor had punched him.

Again Alister's words had merit, but Kaden continued regardless, "His Impact Drivers can only reach as far as his fists and his Wrench, while devastating, doesn't have any gravity manipulators. The only ranged weapons he does have, at least what we know of, are his Gemini Pistols, but those aren't really made for long ranged combat either, especially the Pollux dueler. They're more for-"

"Ooh, ooh, I got this one," interrupted Alister with his hand raised eagerly. Kaden was starting to get annoyed by the interruptions but let his friend proceed with an open-palmed gesture. Alister grinned and began, "Gemini Pistols are always built and sold in sets. They are identical looking, but have very different functions. Pollux is the name of the pistol that shoots orange-colored, heavy rounds. They're slow and less accurate, but much more powerful. Castor is the name of the second pistol, which fires rapid, white, piercing shots, and is designed to be very accurate, but at the cost of destructive power."

Kaden, having finally realized that Alister's actions were all sarcastic and made with the intent to mock him, glared darkly at his grinning friend before continuing, "From all that information, I'd have to say that the best way to attack him would probably be from a distance, but with his speed we'll probably have to attack from several directions at once. It's just a matter of making a weapon that can do that."

"That simple, huh?" said Alister, using an even more obviously sarcastic tone as he finished cleaning his personal Combustor and packed it back in his bag. "By the way, why did Mercatus end up accepting your deal?" he questioned offhandedly. "No offense, but there have to be other Lombaxes at the academy with more experience. You're only a level one, after all."

Kaden was annoyed by Alister's comment and felt indignant at his friend’s doubt in his ability. The fact that he too had been suspicious and had asked Mercatus the very same thing when they'd met, was regardless.

"Apparently," replied Kaden, "most students here are only interested in grades and aren’t really hurting for shine either. There are some that will build things for bolts, but they usually charge a high negotiating price, since any work they do for Mercatus would not count towards Nova Academy’s academic credits. He said that investing in me was a good business move because I'm the only engineer on the mountain that will build weapons and gadgets solely in exchange for the ability to make them."

"Ha, so it's not your skill he wants, it's your cheap labor," jabbed Alister.

Kaden opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off.

"Squad 3!" came the shout of their Basic Ranged Weapons instructor.

"That's us," said their squad's leader from the edge of the room.

Every student from Squad 3 stood up as one before tucking their rifles into their shoulders and marching over to the shooting range.

* * *

Kaden rode a grav-lift pad down to the part of the Science Field that Mercatus had recently granted him special access to. Today was finally the day that he got to see his new workshop and he couldn't help but be a bit anxious. 

As the lift doors opened, he walked out into a large reception area. A few guard-bots stood sentry in the corners and a robotic secretary sat at a large desk in the center.

Mercatus himself was already here, sitting in one of the lounge chairs, writing on a digi-pad. He looked up as Kaden approached and stood up to greet him.

Kaden, after much deliberation, had decided that he liked Mercatus. The brown-furred Lombax gave off a business-like air that made him seem as if he knew what he was doing, but Kaden had mostly taken to him after their meeting to negotiate the terms of his service.

The young Lombax had expected to go into Mercatus's office and be given a take it or leave it, short end of the stick scenario, since Mercatus had no real need of the deal, as far as Kaden could see. 

Surprisingly though, the terms were very generous. Kaden got to retain all long-term rights to his inventions and was given access to an unexpectedly large variety of supplies and equipment within a certain spending limit.

Mercatus, in turn, got the right to sell and produce any of the schematics Kaden designed while using his resources until the cost of the entire endeavor had been paid off. It was essentially a loan with Kaden's inventions as collateral.

Mercatus could also cancel the deal at any time, but would still retain the rights to his designs until his debt was repaid, which was only fair in Kaden's opinion. There had also been a verbal agreement between the two of them that if Kaden ever wanted to market his goods afterwards, then Mercatus should be considered with favor.

This was much more than Kaden had expected to get. Mercatus was currently a level seven Scientific Arts student, which meant he studied at both the Science and the Art Fields. Kaden's only other interactions with high-level students were those with Varick and they were a vastly different experience.

After formalities and greetings, the two new partners passed through a doorway that was to the side of the reception area. 

Kaden was then led through what looked like a series of break rooms full of Science Field students in lab coats who were mostly chatting and eating. One room had a group of about five students all intently watching a holo-screen.

Eventually, Mercatus stopped at another series of grav-lifts, separate from the ones Kaden had used. These lifts were specific to this laboratory section of the Science Field.

As the two got in, the lift doors closed and Mercatus punched in a security code, which Kaden quickly memorized. Then Kaden was 'told' the code so that he could remember it. The tan Lombax simply nodded and listened without revealing he'd already done so out of habit.

As they descended deeper into the mountain, the lift was periodically filled with a familiar green light and a buzzing noise that indicated they were being bio-scanned.

"There's a lot of security here," Kaden noted aloud.

"Of course there is," Mercatus replied with a smile. "The private labs and workshops of the Science Field hold secrets and technology almost as coveted as those from the Center for Advanced Lombax Research. There are even rumors that the Center uses Nova facilities when they have overflow research to do, so there could even be some top-secret government experiments going on down here as we speak."

"Yea," Kaden chimed in sarcastically, "maybe they're even experimenting with inter-dimensional travel."

The myth that the Center for Advanced Lombax Research had discovered the technology to open interdimensional portals to other worlds was one of the most popular conspiracy theories on the holo-net. No matter how much the government denied it, there were always a few loons out there that just wouldn't let it go.

Mercatus chuckled to himself at Kaden's comment, "I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true, you know. If someone had told me as a kid that weapons upgraded using Nanotech would become a popular commodity, I would have laughed at them as well."

Kaden had to admit that Mercatus had a point. As a scientist, it was his duty to never believe something is a hundred percent impossible or guaranteed. He mentally chided himself for his own comment.

The idea of Nano-weapons was a good example of far-fetched concepts working out in reality. Buying cheaper versions of weaponry with a fraction of their potential power, which then upgraded themselves when you killed your enemies? That sounded like something out of a holo-vid game, but they did exist and they were very popular among the heroes and adventurers of the galaxy.

The concept was surprisingly simple. Nanotech was essentially a bunch of nanoscopic robots called nanites whose structure was made up of both metal alloys and proteins. They could then use themselves as building blocks to repair damaged organic tissue, fix holes in armor, or even repair larger robotic circuitry to an extent.

One day, a group of brilliant inventors… or more likely mad scientists... realized that they could take huge quantities of nanites and give them specific commands to use themselves as the building material to construct new weapons and other equipment, rather than simply repair ones that already existed.

However, Nanotech was not particularly easy to make. Almost all Nanotech nanites were programmed with subroutines that allowed them to replicate over long periods of time whenever they came into contact with traces of the rare metals required to build them. One could increase the Nanotech in their blood simply by doing nothing, but any warrior who was prone to firefights would need constant infusions of new Nanotech just to stay alive.

Even so, Nano-weapons became a sweeping hit across the galaxy and beyond. Huge armies with lots of soldiers, but no bolts for gear, or great adventurers and heroes with the same problem, were suddenly able to buy cheaply manufactured weapons for a fraction of the cost of cutting-edge tech. 

If either managed to survive a battle with any creature containing nanites, they could absorb the remaining Nanotech from their defeated enemies' corpses. The Nanotech controller on the weapon would then command the nanites to follow a preloaded upgrade schematic once it had enough nanites stored.

* * *

When the two Lombaxes had finally arrived at their floor, the doors to the lift opened to reveal a long hallway with two very large doors on either side. Mercatus explained that most labs were isolated and that only a few lifts were exclusively capable of reaching them. But, since Kaden didn't need a lab with all the extra safety and privacy protocols, he'd instead simply be sharing the floor with another team. For the moment, however, the other lab was empty.

Mercatus walked to one of the doors and entered yet another security code into the control panel. The door then opened with a whoosh of air and the lights inside activated automatically, illuminating the vast workshop.

Kaden couldn't help but grin excitedly as he looked around at the shiny new work area that would be all his to use. It was bigger than any of the classrooms he'd ever worked in and was filled with manufacturing equipment. All state of the art science equipment like molecular and atomic manipulators, testing devices, a small supercomputer, its own power station, and… a smoothie machine.

"Like it?" Mercatus asked, already knowing the answer. "I got a good deal on the metal fabricator over there, but I'm really proud of the atomic manipulators. They're the best you can get without going into the Quantum Manipulator class."

As Kaden walked around the room his mind began to fill with visions of all the things he could make. He was going to set up a force gauge in the corner here and he'd work on explosives by the far wall over there, where there would be plenty of room for the blast shield without it getting in the way of other projects. Liquid-type ammunition experiments would have to be done around one of the two drains in the floor and gas weaponry would be over by the air purifier/atmosphere purging device.

"This is going to be good," Kaden thought out loud as he wandered around the room.

"I'm very much looking forward to the results,” agreed Mercatus. “Now, would you mind indulging me in a request?" he added.

"Sure," answered Kaden enthusiastically.

Mercatus nodded and explained, "I have cultivated a rather good working relationship with a small group of Grummels, actually the last group I think, who specialize in weapons sales. If there are any real bolts to be made on weapons, it would be on the intergalactic market. However, as I'm sure you know, Lombax technology is banned from being sold to non-Lombax groups without special permission and I'm not likely to get that any time soon or in any economical way. I was, therefore, hoping you could try and make a few combat-oriented devices that didn't make use of any technology unknown to the rest of the galaxy and which could be sold without fear of inciting restriction laws."

Kaden pondered the request. It shouldn't be too hard for him to do, especially since his vendetta had been put on hold for the time being, "I can do that,” he said confidently after only a short time. “No problem.”

Mercatus clapped his hands together in delight, "Excellent, that just leaves the matter of raw materials, a basic set of which should be arriving soon. If you need anything else you can either send me a request for it or simply purchase it yourself and I'll reimburse you. I would prefer, however, if you tried to let me buy as many of the materials that you need as possible. It may take a little longer, but I can usually find them for a better price among my contacts." As Mercatus finished, there was a loud buzzing noise that came from the now shut doorway. "Ah ha, that's probably those materials now."

Mercatus opened the door to the lab and two small lab assistant androids trundled their way in. The androids were very simply designed robots whose bases were a simple, covered motor block on tank treads.

Coming up from the center of the motor blocks was a large cylinder that had four long, robotic limbs protruding from it, each ending in some kind of tool. At the top of the cylinder, instead of a central 'head', the androids had three stalks that ended in their visual matrix and scanning sensors.

Each of the two droids also had a large hovercart attachment. Resting on these carts were various stacks of tubes and boxes full of various materials. Also among the piles, stashed on the second lab-bot's cart, was an old-fashioned brown crate that stuck out from the rest.

Mercatus quickly made his way to the second cart and removed this object first, before lifting it onto a table, "You'll want to make sure to keep these safe," he said as he reached for something to open the crate with. "I recommend you don't hold your wrench while looking at it either," he laughed at his own joke, but Kaden didn't get it.

"Why's that?" Kaden asked curiously.

"Oh, it's just a bit of humor you pick up when you do a lot of business with adventurers," Mercatus answered as he shoved a nearby multi-tool into the crate's lid. "They get into such a habit of smashing these things whenever and wherever they see them that they sometimes do it when they shouldn't."

There was a groan of wood followed by a sharp crack as the lid popped off the box and revealed a pile of glittering bolts beneath.

Bolts were the currency of the galaxy. They weren't like some ancient currencies, which relied on a government’s authority to give them value and could be counterfeited. A bolt's value lay squarely within the material they were made of. A very delicate molecular mix of Titanium, Gold, Platinum, and Raritanium formed their precious alloy structures. The reason Mercatus had brought a crate of them into Kaden's workshop was that they were necessary for his work.

Kaden reached into the crate and pulled out a handful of various sized and shaped bolts before letting them slide through his fingers back into the pile. They were even lighter then they looked. 

Besides being a currency, bolts were nearly indestructible. This, combined with their low weight, made them perfect for use in weapons and armor, which needed to be both light and sturdy.

Most bolts were the size of plant seeds, fabricated with the intention of holding together the very delicate internal parts of complex weaponry. What was officially considered a 'bolt' for currency was actually a standard measurement of mass and material ratio.

"Why would anyone want to smash a crate of bolts?" Kaden pressed after, somewhat arduously, tearing his eyes from the glittering pile of shine.

"Because it's what they do," Mercatus answered with a small chuckle. "Any decent fighting force needs to be supplied with three things: Ammo, Nanotech, and bolts for repairs. They tend to keep these supplies together in stacks of crates like this one. Heroes, adventurers, explorers, and anyone else crazy enough to fight those armies have an insatiable lust to loot those crates for all their worth."

"That sounds dumb,” Kaden said dismissively. “What kind of person smashes crates so often that it becomes an addictive second nature?" he wondered aloud as he shook his head.

"Don't knock the system Kaden," Mercatus replied with a knowing tone. "It's the whole reason a single highly-skilled hero can finance a one-man war, which is good for me since I sell the equipment to ‘both’ sides."

Kaden turned his attention back to the two supply-laden lab-bots and changed the subject, "So, do these two come with the gear or are they just a delivery service?" he asked as he began unloading the other materials, though he was mostly just interested in seeing what they were, like a child opening gifts.

"They're both yours to use as you see fit," said Mercatus moving over to the first one. "This one is Alpha and the other is Beta; you can change their names if you want. They don't have a very advanced A.I., so they'll only follow specific commands."

"What's the point of names?" asked Kaden. "They look identical. How am I going to tell them apart?"

At that moment, the door swished open again and Varick waltzed into the open doorway, "Oh, I'm sure once you use them for a few experiments you'll be able to tell them apart by the scorch marks and dents they'll most surely have," he offered cheerfully.

"Varick," Kaden replied un-cheerfully, as a way of greeting.

"Welcome Varick," greeted Mercatus, most cheerfully of all. "Come to make sure your protégé is getting settled in?"

"Of course," Varick responded, this time with mid-tier cheerfulness. "And how do you like everything so far Kaden?"

"It's excellent!" answered Kaden, quickly bringing his cheer levels nearly up to Varick's, despite himself. "I'll definitely be able to put this stuff to good use."

"Well then, how about a teaser?" asked Varick eagerly. "I'm sure you've already got the first weapon you want to prototype dancing in your mind. Am I right?"

Kaden thought for a moment. It was true that he did have many ideas of what to do, but due to recent events, he had lost the momentum of his defeat-inspired enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I've got a few ideas I want to try, but Mercatus just asked me to look into building something that was a bit more market-friendly," Kaden explained. "I've got over a year until the next tournament, so I might as well try and pay off what I'm going to owe ahead of time." 

Varick looked both confused and disappointed, "What do you mean?" he questioned. "The whole point of this was to give you the chance to chase your revenge. Forget about 'market-friendly'!"

"Ahhhhp-ahp-ahp-ahp… now hold on there Varick," Mercatus interjected quickly. "I see nothing wrong with Kaden's strategy. It's smart and safe and he's got plenty of time to do his own thing."

Varick turned to Mercatus with a slight glare, "Of course it sounds good to you," he said accusingly. "I can already see the bolts glittering in your eyes." 

Varick's expression suddenly changed and he did a double take, looking Mercatus straight in the eye this time. A confused look crossed his face and a moment later he turned to look down at the table behind him to see a crate full of glistening, shiny bolts and choked as he repressed a small fit of laughter.

"Ahem," he said as he cleared his throat. He then turned back to Kaden. "So then, what happened to all that excitement, all that fire that I saw when you started this project?"

Kaden shrugged at the question, "I don't know. It's not like I've given up. I've just realized that there's plenty of time to get my work done and that blindly obsessing about it won't get me anywhere. Besides, I still have to focus on my Science Field scores. I nearly forgot that I'm not even a member of the Military Field."

Varick studied Kaden closely for an unnervingly long time, "You know, Kaden… that sounds suspiciously like a mature and logical thought. What happened?" Varick wondered suspiciously, with one eyebrow raised.

"Nothing 'happened'," replied Kaden in annoyance.

Varick continued to stare at him for a while as he processed something in his mind until finally, he nodded his apparent acceptance, "Very well," he said, conceding before taking a step back.

Mercatus then returned to his tour of the facility and Varick was content to watch without another word.

* * *

Sorana was getting dressed for the night's dinner party. This time she had been informed that it was to be some kind of tropical theme, based on a far off, extra-planetary culture. She had briefly thought of inviting Kaden since roasted pork was supposed to be the main dish and she still hadn't done her usual, indirect apology for being overly-stern with him.

Even though her childhood friend always forgot about their 'arguments' and she was determined to do it, she always felt guilty about being hard on him when it wasn't necessarily her place to do so. She typically handled this personal guilt by secretly 'repaying' him through various gifts and events… mostly with food. Kaden was a brilliant mind with simple tastes.

However, she had changed her mind about inviting him to this party the moment she'd gotten a good look at the dinner attire she was expected to wear.

She didn't mind the skirt so much, even though it seemed to be made from what looked like a long kind of grass, and she actually liked the flower necklace that accented it. 

Her real problem was that the top she'd received seemed to be made from two halves of an exotic fruit... and virtually nothing else. She almost couldn't believe that the two half orbs on a string she was holding could be considered normal clothing to wear in public on whatever planet the party's theme had originated from.

Regardless of their authenticity, there was simply no way she was going to let Kaden see her wearing it.

A small vibration from the top of Sorana's desk interrupted her thoughts. The sound had come from her personal digi-pad and it was an alert that she had received a message.

"Who is it?" asked Sorana's brown-furred roommate from where she sat in her own bed on the other side of the room.

"Hold on Claire, let me look at it first," Sorana replied.

She picked up the digi-pad and opened her digital mailbox. 

There was an instant where Sorana’s mood soured as she immediately assumed the new mail was one of 'those kinds' of messages when she saw the sender's profile image of the extremely handsome male, but she read it anyway.

_ Dear Miss Sorana Bellit, _

_ Greetings, I hope this message finds you well. I believe that you and I may be able to help one another greatly on a specific matter that is important to both of us. I would very much like to make your acquaintance. Please allow me the honor of having you for dinner sometime in the near future. Simply reply with a date that would be convenient for you and I will make the accommodations. _

_ Sincerely yours, _

_ President of the Science Field, Level eight _

_ -Varick Adjunaris _

After reading the message itself, Sorana still hadn't changed her mind about its purpose, but, after amazingly being able to authenticate the Nova Academy title, she decided that it warranted a reply. She could at least see what this ‘Varick’ wanted.

"Guess it wasn't that Science Field boyfriend of yours," her roommate sighed with disappointment.

Sorana finished writing her reply and put down the device before rolling her eyes at her friend's remark, "How do you know it wasn't him?" she asked, knowing that refuting their relationship yet again would do little to deter her roommate, as per usual.

"Because," Claire explained with a grin, "you get this adorable look on your face, like a little kid getting candy, when you get a message from him. It's so cute."

Sorana finished getting dressed and walked to her wall closet before activating a holo-projector. The system scanned her briefly before generating a life-sized, holographic, mirror image of her wearing the complete party outfit.

"Humph," scoffed the white-furred Lombax dismissively as she spun the hologram of herself around so that she could see herself from the back. "You overanalyze everything and stick your ridiculous fantasies everywhere. Kaden and I don't have that kind of relationship, so, if you want sappy romance, just go back to reading your  _ Crepuscular _  holo-books."

Sorana studied her holographic-self intently, determined to ignore her meddling roommate's inevitable reply this time. She then decided to try out the pose she'd seen the model doing on the outfit's packaging, putting one hand on her hip and the other behind her head.

There was a sudden flash of light followed by an artificial shutter noise.

Recognizing the sound, Sorana spun around in a panic, only to find Claire holding the very same digi-pad she'd just used, with its built-in vid-collector pointed right at her.

"Then you won't mind if your ‘completely platonic’ friend offers his opinion on your outfit," said Claire with a mischievous grin.

"Delete it," Sorana demanded sternly.

"Let's see now, top eight contacts, here we go, Kaden. Ooooh, number three speed-contact? You're so cute," Claire squealed before she began to tap rapidly onto the digi-pads screen.  _ "Hey… Kaden… tell me… what you think… of this dress… … Tee-hee ;)." _

"Claire, I'm warning you," Sorana threatened desperately, flattening her ears down backward while narrowing her eyes. "Let go of that thing right now!"

"Oh no, my finger's getting heavy," laughed Claire sadistically as she hovered over the ‘send’ button.

Like lightning, Sorana pounced forward with speed that she should not have possessed. Like an arrow, the young Lombax’s hand shot toward the device, catching Claire completely off-guard.

Reflexively, the brown-furred Lombax tried to pull away, only managing to fall on her back before making Sorana land on top of her. The two struggled over the digi-pad for several seconds before a short 'beep' chimed out with the force of a gong across the room, freezing them both in place.

Claire slowly brought the device back down to where both she and Sorana could read the big 'Image Sent' notice written across it.

"O-oopsy…" whispered Claire in a hushed, cracked voice, not daring to look her friend straight in the eye.

Sorana slowly turned her head until her eyes locked into place on Claire's and the brown-furred Lombax's blood ran cold.

"Ok, Sor, it was just a joke," Claire tried to soothe as Sorana, without breaking eye contact or flinching a facial muscle, reached for the nearest pillow. "Sorana wait! I'm sorry. It was an accident, I didn't mean-Noooo!"

* * *

Kaden was sitting in his lab at his main workbench with two electro-rods in his hands. His current project required a rather hefty capacitor that needed to be initially charged with great precision. He needed to quickly adjust for the various power fluctuations that popped up occasionally, but they didn't happen often. The entire charging process would take nearly ten minutes.

Now that doesn't sound like a long time, but it meant that Kaden would have to be sitting in his current position with his hands raised for the entirety of those ten minutes, just waiting for something to happen that he would have to fix in less than a few seconds, before having to wait patiently for the next one.

Kaden sighed to himself and eyed one of his assistant bots across the room. He recognized it as Beta because its main cylinder body was bent slightly, relative to its motor block from that time he'd accidentally tripped over it. Unfortunately, its A.I. wasn't good enough to handle this mundane, yet demanding task, so he'd just have to suffer through it.

As lamentation and ire over his extreme boredom grew, he was almost startled by a slight hum that rang in his ear. It was an alert from his NID telling him that he'd received a message.

Kaden looked down at the glowing capacitor in front of him. He needed to fix fluctuations within seconds of them appearing or the capacitor could overload, but he figured checking his message couldn't be that distracting.

With a simple thought, he ordered his NID to open the message over just one of his eyes to be safe.

* * *

Mercatus rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration, "And that's all you can remember?" he asked the Lombax with badly burnt facial fur who was sitting in the hospital bed in front of him.

Kaden blinked a few more times, he was still a little hazy since he'd just woken up and his eyes were still healing, "I guess I must have screwed up the capacitor charge or something, but that doesn't sound like me," he repeated. He could recall nothing up until he turned on his electro-rods.

Mercatus sighed, "It's only been two days Kaden and that's ‘with’ generously counting yesterday, when I gave it to you, as a full day. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about my investment already."

Kaden shrugged, "Good or bad, I still need to finish at least one design to pay you back and I already owe you one high-density electro capacitor and a workbench."

Mercatus shook his head, but couldn't stop himself from smiling, "We'll see about that. Just try to not blow up the rest of your workshop before giving me something besides a hospital bill."

Kaden gave Mercatus a thumbs up and a grin, which looked ridiculous alongside his scorched face, "You got it, boss."

Mercatus shook his head one last time before getting up and leaving Kaden to his rest.

When Mercatus was gone, Kaden absently checked his NID for new messages, but it said there were no 'new' messages received. This was odd, and slightly disappointing. Typically, after Sorana went on a rampage and scolded him, she would inevitably begin to feel guilty about it, regardless of how well deserved it was. She would then always try to 'secretly' make a peace offering that he would then pretend to not know what it was for. He had been expecting one for days, but had received nothing so far.

Sighing with discontent, Kaden closed out his NID and laid his head back onto his pillow. If Sorana was still upset with him, he'd simply have to let her be until she wanted to talk again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mercatus – His name literally means ‘Market’ in Latin.
> 
> Shine - is slang for money when referring to bolts, like cash, or dough.
> 
> Crepuscular - is a hugely divisive romantic Holo-book series where one’s opinions are either vilely negative or obsessively positive; Crepuscular is the Latin word for ‘of the twilight’.


End file.
